The Demon of the Seas
by Natsuflado69
Summary: "You know, the only pirates I ever knew weren't as cool as you guys. Not even close. All these strange powers, it reminds me of my home. Oh well, the time's have changed and so have I..for better or for worse. But one thing that hasn't changed is that I will defend anyone I call a friend!" In a land of pirates, Natsu must forge his path along with the Straw Hats! NatsuxHarem HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**HELLO! Welcome to another one of my stories! Now this one is a crossover between two anime series I just freaking love! I've wanted to do this for a while now and I just said "to hell with it!" and started right away! Here is my crossover of Fairy Tail+One Piece: Demon of the Seas!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or One Piece. They each belong to their respective owners…sadly.**

 _ **Out in the Ocean**_

A lone, grand ship sailed peacefully on the sea; passing beneath various sea life and fallen ships that were not strong enough to hold their own on the high seas. Aboard this ship were two sailors bored out of their minds just leaning on the railings. The tanned, robust sailor blankly looked down on the ocean, but was shocked to see a lone barrel floating. "Huh?" He said, staring at the mysterious barrel. The sailor wondered just what was in that barrel; booze, treasure, a person? Nah, the last one was just too weird so it had to be one of the first two.

Oh how little he knew…

The robust sailor tried throwing a rope to catch the barrel, but missed. He tried again, but missed again. "Aww missed again! Batter out!" His lanky, taller friend teased.

"What are you two doing? You freakin' suck!" Another sailor yelled from the crow's nest, chuckling to himself at his friend's lack of aim. Suddenly, a shudder climbed down his back and he turned behind to look at an island floating right beside them. He gulped. He had a bad feeling about that island.

The rotund sailor finally got ahold of the barrel and began pulling it upwards onto the ship. "Oi help me out here!" He called to his lanky friend. His friend quickly grabbed ahold of the rope and also began pulling upwards.

"Man, this thing is freaking heavy!" The lanky sailor grumbled as he exerted his muscles to pull up the barrel. "Hehe must be filled with booze, then! Dibs on the first drink!" He yelled, finally pulling up the barrel with his friend.

"It's all ours now!" The portly sailor said, laughing. "Oi, Jeffy, you want some?" He yelled to the sailor in the crow's nest. After a couple seconds of no response, "Jeffy? You there?"

Sweat trickled down Jeffy's face as he stared at the island. Or, not so much the island, but the pink ship sailing past the island. His eyes quickly zeroed in on one particular part of the ship, a jolly roger. "S-ship off the starboard stern!" Jeffy yelled to the sailors below him, his hat falling in the midst of his quick movements. "There's a pirate flag on its mast! It's a pirate ship! Enemy raid! Enemy raid!" He continued screaming at the top of his lungs. His two friends quickly dropped the barrel and ran off to go to their positions.

Suddenly, the pink pirate ship began firing at their ship with three large cannonballs; all missing the ship. _'Were those on purpose? Or just poor aim? I hope it's the latter'_ Jeffy thought to himself.

The civilians inside the cruise ship began shaking from the explosions from the cannonballs. However, only one person was calm throughout this entire ordeal. The two sailors from the deck both opened the door to the ballroom in haste, "Captain! It's a pirate attack!" They both yelled.

"W-what?!" The captain yelled, his sunglasses nearly falling from his head. After hearing that horrifying news, the passengers began screaming in fright at the impending pirate attack. "E-everyone, please stay calm!" The captain began yelling to keep his passengers calm before he solved this ordeal. As the passengers began running for the exits, one orange-haired woman pushed herself against the wall to avoid being seen. She smirked at all the people running away from the pirate attack and readied herself for what she came here to do.

Aboard the pirate ship, a large, freckle-faced woman with long wavy black hair watched as the cannonballs from her ship began to slowly decimate the cruise ship without causing it to sink into the bottom of the ocean. After all, she didn't want to lose all the valuable treasure that was surely aboard that ship. The woman wore a white cowgirl hat with a large red plume, a red neckerchief, a pink plaid shirt, and a blue captain's coat over it with the arms in the sleeves unlike many other pirates. She also wore rings on her fingers and her long sharp fingernails had red polish. She had a purple sash with a flintlock pistol tucked in it and some jewels and also wore graying pants and red shoes with gold buckles. Her eyes stared deeply at the far away cruise ship and quickly called for her cabin boy, "Coby!" She yelled.

"Y-yes, ma'am?!" A pink-haired bespectacled young boy asked. The cabin boy was wearing a blue and white shirt, black sweats with white socks and red slippers adorning his feet.

"Who's the most beautiful women of all on these seas?" She grinned, waiting for the obvious response. After all, there were no women on these seas…no, in this whole planet that could rival her beauty.

"T-this ship's captain, Alvida, of course!" Coby chuckled awkwardly, praying that she couldn't tell that he was lying through his teeth.

Suddenly the woman broke out in a fit of laughter at hearing the boy's answer. Her large club slammed on the wooden planks of her ship. "Well done!" She whispered, the young boy thanking her for her "kindness." Her crew behind her began to chuckle at seeing the young brat squirm under Alvida's fat thumb. It was a favorite pastime of theirs.

"Captain Alvida. This is our first prey in a while." A tanned, bearded pirate said behind her.

"That's right! Alright! Start pounding the ship!" She yelled, getting a roar of agreement from her crew.

Cannonballs began to rain down on the ship, destroying the sails so they could not flee. Coby flinched from watching this and prayed someone on that ship could finally put an end to Alvida's horrible reign. One cannonball slammed into the sail, causing it to break off and crash down into the sea below. The passengers continued to scream and panic at being unable to flee from the pirate attack and hoped the Marines would come to save them. On top of the deck, no one noticed the barrel rolling down the deck and fall down the steps leading to the other barrels below deck.

The orange-haired woman began sprinting down the hallway, cursing herself for putting herself in a stupid ballroom dress, and exited through a door to the upper deck. She checked to see if the coast was clear and was about to run until she felt a shockwave rock the ship. The woman ran towards the railing and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a large white goose with hearts for eyes come into her line of vision. Her eyes looked to the side to see that it was the ship head for the pirate ship and bit her lip in anger at seeing another pirate ship. _'I really hate pirates.'_ She thought to herself and sprinted back inside the ship. The pirate ship began slowly sailing to the side of the ship and anchored themselves right on the side of the cruise ship. The pirates threw rope to hook onto the railings and prepared themselves for the raid.

"Men! Show them the terror of Iron Club Alvida, the woman pirate!" Alvida yelled, pointing her large club towards the cruise ship. Her crew then roared in agreement and started running on the ropes to board the ship. The pirated howled with glee as they boarded the ship and ran amok seeking the pleasure of plundering from the weak.

Coby shivered in both grief and fear as he watched the pirates board the ship. He inwardly cursed himself for being too weak to stand up to the pirates and wished the Marines would step in and put a stop to them. Alvida noticed the young boy shivering and growled at him, "Coby! What are you doing?!"

"I-I'm not good at this sort of thing…can't I just stay here?" He whispered weakly, holding tightly onto the rope and hoped that there was at least a shred of goodness in the pirate's heart.

Unfortunately for him, there was no shred of goodness in this pirate woman's heart. "Hmm?! Are you tryin' to give me backtalk?!" She asked through gritted teeth, stomping closer to the weak cabin boy.

"P-please, anything but the club!" Coby begged, sweating profusely at the memories at being on the receiving end of that horrendous weapon.

"Then get yer ass in gear!" Alvida yelled, kicking Coby in the rear to push him onto the cruise ship.

Coby screamed as he was shot in the air and continued until his face hit the wall on top of the deck and slid down onto the deck. He held his face in pain and inwardly cried at being forced to plunder on innocent people. He suddenly heard screaming coming from above him and he looked up to see a large, fat Alvida speeding towards him with her club ready to swing. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Coby yelled as he ducked, barely missing Alvida and having her crash into one of the cabins on the deck.

Inside the ballroom, the passengers were backed into a corner by the pirates. "Now now, no need to fuss. We won't take yer lives, but we will take all yer valuables. I think that's a fair trade, right?" One of the pirates asked, pointing his sword at the crowd.

Stomping was heard inside the room. "Anyone who tries to fight back'll wind up at the bottom of the ocean!" Alvida told the crowd of people, gripping her club as a show of force.

Unbeknownst to everyone on the ship, the orange-haired woman was hiding on the top deck of the ship. She heard the laughs of the pirates coming from the ballroom and quickly grabbed the hem of her dress and threw it off of her, revealing her pirate outfit: a black bandana tied to her head, a navy shirt, and gray pants. She wished she could help the poor passengers, but she had more important things to do.

Coby slowly walked through the interior of the ship and poked his head through one of the door. "Hello…" He mumbled, looking in to see the kitchen of the ship. A large table was in the center of the room with plenty of food to spare on it, another table was tumbled over with spilt food everywhere, barrels were all shoved into one corner, but strangely one barrel was standing upright on the other side of the room. "T-there's no one in here, right?" Coby whispered, slowly walking into the room. Seeing no one was in here, he breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes then caught sight of a large barrel on the side where all the barrels were jammed into a corner. "That's a rather large barrel." He said to himself as he walked over to it. Something felt like it was calling to him as he moved closer to it. With every step he took, it felt like he was destined to meet this barrel.

What a strange destiny…

Unknown to anyone on the ship, the orange-haired woman used one of the ropes the pirates had used to board the ship to know board their own ship in the hopes of making off with whatever gold they had. She stealthily landed on the ship and slowly made her way to one of the doors on the deck. As she was about to open it, a pirate with a green shirt and horned hat opened the door. "Hey, who're you?! Never seen you before!" He growled as he saw the intruder. His face edged closer to hers and fear began to cloud her judgement. She was so close to her goal and there was no way she was gonna let some pirate stop her! Quickly, she swung her leg back and swung it back into the man's crotch making him groan in all sorts of pain and agony as he fell to the floor. She watched the man grab his crotch in pain and shrugged her shoulders as she made her way inside the ship.

While this was going on, Coby was rolling the large barrel out of the room, but was stopped by three pirates from Alvida's crew. "Hey, coward! Are you hidin' out in a place like this again?!" One of them said.

"N-No! I thought I'd haul this big barrel of alcohol over…" Coby stuttered out fearfully. The pirates smiled at seeing the big barrel the brat was rolling and wondered what was inside of it.

"Hehehe we'll lighten it for ya!" The fat pirate said.

"I was just feelin' thirsty!" The taller pirate yelled.

"You can't! Alvida will kill us if she finds out!" Coby yelled, fearing just what Alvida would do if him and the crew took whatever kind of booze or treasure she thought belonged to her.

"Then you just need to keep yer mouth shut or I'll sew it shut! Right, Coby?" The pirate with tattoo screamed back at him.

Coby began sweating and whimpered at the deadly stares he was getting. "Y-yes! You're right!"

"Thing's pretty heavy!" The rotund pirate said as he moved the barrel upright. "Alright, I'm gonna bust this thing wide open!" He said, cracking his knuckles. He readied his fist to break the barrel open and swung it down, but was stopped by a…boy?! A fist sped right at him and knocked him up into the air. All the pirates in the room and Coby screamed in fright at seeing a boy with a straw hat jump out of the barrel.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"The boy with the straw hat screamed as he awakened from his nap. "I slept great!" He yelled to himself. His eyes then began to wonder inquisitively over his surroundings. "Huh?" He looked down to see a knocked out pirate on the floor. His eyes then wandered to the two astonished-looking pirates looking right at him. "Who're you guys?" HE asked them.

"No, who are you?!" They both screamed at the boy with the straw hat.

He patted them on the cheeks. "Oi, that guy is gonna catch a cold is he sleeps there, y'know." The boy said, ignoring their bafflement.

"But you did that!" They both yelled at him again. "Are you toyin' with us even when you know we're pirates?!' The pirate with the tattoo growled at him.

"Hey, kid, I'm hungry! You got any food?" The straw hat boy asked Coby, again ignoring the two pirates.

"Listen when people are talking!" The pirate yelled at him.

"That's it you damn kid!" The taller pirate yelled, raising his sword along with the other pirate.

Coby screamed as he saw that the guy was about to be cut in half. The straw hat boy tilted his head at the pink-haired weird facial expression and turned around to see the two pirates swinging their sword at him. Coby couldn't look and covered his eyes to avoid the gruesome scene. After a couple of seconds, he looked to see…the guy was completely fine?! The two pirates lay in shock at seeing both of their swords breaking in half and having no effect on the boy with the straw hat. "What's the big idea? You could've really hurt someone like that." He said questioningly.

"W-who are you?!" One of the pirates asked.

"Me? I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meetcha!" He said with a big smile on his face. The two pirates then screamed as they grabbed their fallen comrade and sped out of the room. "Hmm…that was weird. Oh well!" The straw hat boy chuckled.

"What the…what just happened?" Coby stuttered out, still staring at the kid with the straw hat. Suddenly his senses returned to him and quickly tried to save the boy before anything bad happened to him. He had seen enough pain already at the hands of Alvoda. "R-run, hurry! If they come back with their friends, you'll be killed!" Coby yelled at him.

"Mmmmmm but man, I'm hungry!" He grumbled to himself.

"How can you be so carefree?! There are still lots more of them up on deck!" Coby asked, trying to pull the boy away from the door before he got himself killed. Unfortunately, the boy was far too strong and was instead being pulled by him. Luffy pushed open a door and squealed in delight at seeing food.

"Haha food! Yes! Food!" Luffy said as he began checking the storage room for any meat.

Coby gulped. "Actually, they might not find us in here." His eyes lowered to see Luffy checking the various boxes for any food.

"Oh which should I choose? Hmm…this one?" He opened the box to see a pile of apples inside. "Oh these look great! It's not meat, but these will do in a pinch!" Luffy yelled as he began stuffing his mouth full of apples.

"U-umm my name is Coby by the way. Your name is Luffy, right? That was incredible just now. How did you do that?!" Coby began asking just how Luffy had the power to overcome those pirates. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Luffy was actually listening to him.

"Man, these things are great!" He yelled at Coby before turning back to the box full of apples. "Is this a pirate ship?" Luffy asked.

"No, it's a passenger ship that is being raided by Alvida." Coby said, sighing to himself.

Luffy shrugged indifferently at what Coby had just said. "Well that doesn't matter. Do you know if there are any boats onboard?" Luffy asked.

"I-I think so…" Coby replied.

"Ah that's good because my ship got swallowed by my arch nemesis, a giant whirlpool. I swear those things are the worst and have been just after me every time I used to go out on a boat. Stupid whirlpools…" Luffy muttered as he continued eating the apples.

"You mean _those_ giant whirlpools?! But no one could survive that!" Coby exclaimed.

"Hahaha boy, was that a real surprise! That whirlpool almost had me, but I beat it shishishishi!" Luffy laughed, scratching the back of his head in triumphant. Coby sweatdropped at hearing Luffy's odd tale and chalked it up to possible delusions by being starved of food. "So are you one of those pirates?" Luffy asked Coby.

Coby's eyes widened and his head drooped at remembering his first meeting with Alvida. "It was on that fateful day…that day, I got in a boat on the outskirts of town to go fishing…but it turned out the boat was actually headed for a pirate ship. It's been two years since. In exchange for my life, I've been forced to be a chore boy." Coby said tearfully, gripping the legs of his pants in pain at remembering that horrible event.

Luffy nodded his head slowly at hearing the kid's tale. "I see…you're really dumb and stupid!" He simply said, staring at Coby.

Coby lowered his head in sadness. "You're brutally honest…"

Luffy shrugged. "Well, if you don't like it, then run away, duh."

Coby began fervently shaking his head. "I-I can't! No way! No way! Just the thought of Alvida finding me frightens me and makes me weak in the knees-"

"Oh, so you're a wimp, too? Man, I hate you!"Luffy said, laughing to himself.

Coby simply cried at hearing another bout of harsh words.

On top of the deck of the cruise ship, Alvida was furious at her men for taking forever with the loot they had stolen. "Hey, now! Quit dawdling! Move it, move it! Haul it all off before the navy gets here! Anyone caught dawdling gets a taste of my iron club!" Alvida yelled at her men.

Below the deck of Alvida's ship, a certain orange-haired woman was not dawdling, but simply stealing all the pirates had earned throughout their travels. She smiled at seeing how her plan was coming together and quickly stuffed all the gold into a large, gray sack.

Alvida glared at her men until she heard her named being called from behind her. She angrily turned to see two of her men fearfully looking at her "What is it?! You're annoying me!"

"A b-b-barrel!" One of them said.

"M-M-Monster!" The other yelled.

"Ehhhh?! Who're you calling a monster!" Alvida screamed as she raised her club to pummel the two of her men. She threw her club at the two men who barely ducked before the fat pirate that was knocked out by Luffy earlier was hit by it and launched into the ocean. Afterwards, the club simply fell and hit the two pirates on the head.

"N-no…some weird guy just popped out of a barrel…he might be…a bounty hunter…" The pirate with the tattoo mumbled.

"What?!" Alvida growled.

Back in the lower deck, Coby was still pouring his heart out to Luffy. "Yeah…if I only had the courage to drift the ocean in a barrel. Ahhh there's actually something I want to do, too. Umm, what compelled you to set out onto the sea, Luffy?" Coby asked the strange boy.

Luffy tilted his head and beamed at the pink-haired wimp. "I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates!"

Coby's jaw dropped in shock at what he had just heard. "K-K-King of the Pirates?"

"Yep!" Luffy said.

"Are you serious?!" Coby asked in shock.

"Yeah" Luffy simply replied.

"Wait, you're a pirate, Luffy?!" Coby questioned.

"Yep." Luffy said.

"What about you're crew?" Coby asked.

"Don't got one. I'm just about to look for one. Although, I've got a good feeling today!" Luffy smiled back at Coby. Coby's face froze in shock at what he had just heard. Luffy tilted his head and waved his hand in front of Coby's face. "Oi, you still there?"

Coby quickly shot up. "King of the Pirates is the title given to the person who obtains everything in the world! That means seeking the great treasure of wealth, fame, and power of the One Piece!"

"Yup, pretty much!" Luffy chuckled.

"Yup?! Pirates all over the world are after that treasure!" Coby yelled.

"Me too!" Luffy said back to him.

"No way! No way! No way No way! Absolutely no way! There's no way you can stand at the apex of this Great Pirate Era!" Coby continued ranting. Luffy shook his head at the boy's pessimistic ranting and stood up and bopped him on the head to shut him up. "Why did you hit me?" Coby groaned.

Luffy shrugged. "I didn't like what you were saying so I hit you."

Coby whimpered as he got up and touched the part of his head where Luffy had hit him. "It's all right. I'm used to it by now." He chuckled sadly, remembering all the times the crew or Alvida would hit him for saying something they didn't like.

Luffy grabbed the straw hat that lay on his head and held it firmly. "It's not about whether I can or not. I'm gonna do it because I want to." Luffy took the straw hat off of his head and stared into it. "I've decided to be the King of the Pirates, so if I die fighting for that, then that's fine with me!" Coby stared in awe of Luffy's words and wondered if he could be that brave too. "Now, then! My belly's full so I guess I'll go get me a boat! I wonder if they'll give me one if I ask?" Luffy said, mumbling to himself as he walked to the door.

Coby stayed inside the room and stared at the floor in front of him. He raised his hands to his face. "I never once thought about it. Do you suppose I can do it, too? If I'm prepared to die for it?" Coby asked Luffy.

Luffy stopped his trek and turned back to look at Coby. "Do what?"

"Do you think…even I could join the navy?" Coby asked.

"Navy?" Luffy asked.

Coby shot up and turned back to look at Luffy. "Yes! Catching bad guys is my dream! It's been my dream ever since I was little!" Tears began to well up in his eyes. "Do you think I can do it?!"

Luffy chuckled as he saw the poor kid about to bawl his eyes out. "How should I know?"

"No! I'll do it! If I'm gonna be a chore boy for the rest of my life, then I'll break out of here and catch even Alvida!" Coby began yelling until a creaking noise was heard above them and the wooden planks above them broke apart. Coby quickly got out of the way, but his heart froze when he heard a familiar voice.

"You're gonna team up with him to catch who? Huh, Coby?!" The smoke began to part revealing an angry Alvida glaring right at him. Coby backed himself into a corner and began to sweat profusely at the angry look on Alvida's face. He knew that look anywhere. He still had nightmares about that look. As Alvida towered over the small boy, swords protruded from the wall behind Luffy. The noise shook Alvida from her glare and moved her eyes to the boy with straw hat. "You don't seem to be Zoro, the pirate hunter." Alvida said with a grin.

"Zoro?" Luffy asked.

"Coby! Who's the most beautiful of all on these seas?!" Alvida asked the chore boy.

Coby shuddered and whimpered as he looked at the cold, hard glare of the pirate woman. He knew what would happen if he said she wasn't, "O-of course that would be-"

"Oi, Coby, who's this big chunky lady?" Luffy asked, pointing at the behemoth woman.

Everyone dropped their jaw at what Luffy had just said and stared blankly at the audacity of his words. Alvida's crew trembled at what the kid had just said and knew just how angry the captain got when her looks were made fun of. Twitch marks began to form on Alvida's face as her anger grew. "You runt!" Alvida screamed as she swung her club at Luffy. Luffy quickly jumped out of the way and narrowly avoided the club. He landed in front of the cowering Coby and grabbed him and jumped upwards onto the top deck.

Luffy grinned as he looked at the pirates in front of him. "Why you!" One of them yelled, swinging their sword at him. Luffy swiftly took a step back and headbutted him to the ground. Behind him another pirate raised their sword to swing at him and received a punch in the face by the straw hat kid. Four other pirates appeared behind him and swung their swords downwards at him, causing him to jump up in the air to avoid them. Luffy beamed at the pirates and grabbed his arm in triumphant. Coby noticed another pirate above him about to jump on top of Luffy, but before he could warn him, Luffy simply dodged out of the way. Luffy then grabbed the pirate's head, "It's not fair to attack from behind!" and threw him back at the four other pirates causing them all to tumble onto the floor. Luffy then turned around to see several other pirates behind him and quickly sped off running. "Hey it's not fair to attack all at once!" He yelled as he ran away from the pirates. Luffy the grabbed ahold of a pillar and, strangely, his arm began to stretch far longer than any other normal arm could. The other pirates stopped chasing him and stared at the boy's stretching arm in fear. Luffy continued running until he had ran off the ship. "Hehe gotcha!" The pirates stared at the freakish kid and ran away from him. " **Gum-Gum Rocket**!" HE screamed as his body began to speed back towards the pirates and collided with them causing them all to scream in pain.

"What?!" Alvida screamed. The rest of the pirates began to slowly back away from the straw hat boy and hope he wouldn't use his weird powers on them too.

Coby stared in shock and awe at the crazy powers Luffy had just showcased. He slowly began to shakily walk towards Luffy. "Luffy…what are you?" He stuttered out.

"Me? I'm a rubber person!" Luffy said as he stretched the right side of his face.

"A rubber person? You can't be serious!" Coby said in shock. He then looked down to see a large shadow and scampered behind Luffy to see an angry Alvida glaring at them.

"You've eaten a Devil's Fruit, haven't you?" Alvida asked.

"Yeah! The Gum-Gum Fruit!" Luffy replied with a grin.

"I see! I'd heard the rumors, but I guess they really do exist. You also seem pretty skilled. You a bounty hunter?" Alvida asked.

"I'm a pirate!" Luffy said.

"A pirate?! Hah! All by yourself?!" Alvida laughed at that.

"It's just me right now, but I'll find some more sooner or later. Like I told Coby, I've got a good feeling about today. Why I might just meet my first crewmate here right now!" Luffy said, looking around to see for any volunteers.

Alvida laughed at that too. "You hear that, boys! He's looking for volunteers! Let's give him an answer, shall we!" Alvida yelled to the rest of her crew.

"Hell no!" They yelled to the straw hat boy.

Alvida sneered at the straw hat boy. "Well, I guess the only way you're getting a crew mate here is if they fall out of the- huh?" Alvida looked down to see a small shadow getting bigger and bigger as it appeared right on her. She looked up to see but by then it was too late.

 _ **CRASH!**_

Smoke billowed from where the shadowy figure crashed into Alvida. Her crew was flabbergasted at how she had just basically summoned that bout of irony on herself and wondered if she had always had that power. Suddenly a voice was heard from inside the smoke, "Ah crap! That was a really freakin' harsh landing. Shit, if I landed on someone, then I'm real sorry, but I just got really hungry and I just kinda lost my strength." The smoke began to park revealing salmon-haired boy clad in a gray and black tunic-like top that reached mid arm with gold outlines, black trousers, a gold belt with a pouch on the side, black wristbands, a black and white scarf tied to his head in a bandana fashion and sandals on his feet. The salmon-haired looked around and saw that he was on a ship and thanked heaven that it was anchored so it wasn't moving. He moved his eyes around to see a guy with a straw hat on and small kid with… "HEY! Nice hair, man! Granted it's a bit brighter than mine, but still nice!" The man said with a smile and a thumbs up. Coby stared with his jaw dropped as he just saw a guy fall from the sky and act like it was nothing.

What the heck was going on here?!

Suddenly, a roar erupted from beneath the man, causing him to jump and land right beside Luffy and Coby. He reached out both of his hand to shake theirs. "Nice to meet you both." Luffy took his hand with a grin while Coby stared shell-shocked at him, but still shook his hand anyway. "Hey any of you two have any food? I'm freakin' starving!" The man groaned, holding his stomach.

Luffy picked an apple from his pocket and showed to the salmon-haired guy. "I was going to save this for later, but you can have it." The man beamed at Luffy and reached for it before he moved it away from him. "If you join my crew!" Luffy beamed at the guy.

"What?! Come on. I'm freaking hungry here! Just give me the damn apple!" The man growled.

"Nope!" Luffy stated before biting into…his hand?! "Agh! Hey, what happened to my apple?!" Luffy looked all around for his apple before the man eating it before his eyes. "AHHHHH my apple! Give it back!' Luffy yelled, reaching for it.

"Nnnnnope! This is my apple. Finders keepers, losers weepers!" The man said, sticking his tongue at Luffy. Luffy growled and cried mock tears as he saw the guy that fell from the sky eat his last apple. Coby just stared wide-eyed at the man arguing with Luffy. He didn't even see him move a muscle yet the apple was now in his hand…

"Grrrr fine, but that means you're joining my crew!" Luffy said angrily.

"Yeah…no. That was if you gave me the apple and I took it. So…I'm still not on your crew…whoever you are." The salmon-haired man said, looking at him with squinted eyes.

"Grrr my name is Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!" Luffy yelled at the top of his lungs.

The man gripped his ears shut as the boy just basically screamed right into his ear. "Yeah well NICE TO MEETCA! NOW STOP SCREAMING IN MY EAR!" The guy yelled right into Luffy's ear, causing Luffy to cover his ears too. Coby continued watching them with a weird look and turned his head to see a hand appear from the hole the man had created when he landed on…

"A-A-A-A-Alv-Al-Alvi-" Coby began to stutter out, pointing at the large woman emerging from the crater. The other two quit arguing and started staring at Alvida surface with an fuming look on her face.

"Ok…WHO'S THE ONE WHO LANDED ON ME!" Alvida screamed at the top of her lungs, gripping her club furiously.

Luffy pointed at the salmon-haired man. "He did."

"Oi, you damn tattletale!" The salmon-haired man screamed at Luffy, receiving a stuck out tongue from Luffy as a response.

As this was all happening, the orange-haired woman was silently creeping put of Alvida's ship, taking careful measures not to get caught with all her stolen loot. She peeked over her shoulder to see the commotion going on, but shook her head and made her way off of the ship.

Coby stared in fear and grabbed the man and Luffy's arm. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Eh why?" Luffy asked, scratching his head.

"Yeah I don't see what the big deal is. All this guy has is a big club. Big freakin' deal." The salmon-haired man said, pointing at the large woman.

Everyone's jaw dropped, except Luffy's because he was laughing his ass off, while Alvida gritted her teeth so hard she almost cracked her teeth. "Did you hear that?" One of Alvida's crew members asked.

"Y-yeah…that guy is so dead." Another of her crew members replied.

"A man? ….A MAN?! COBY! Tell this twerp who the most beautiful woman on all the seas is!" She yelled, pointing her club straight at Coby.

Coby sweated under the gaze of Alvida and began to sweat profusely. "A-Alvida is…is the…the…" He stopped himself as he raised his head to look at Luffy and remembered the inspirational words he had said.

" _I've decided to be the King of the Pirates, so if I die fighting for that, then that's fine with me!"_

Coby continued stuttering as he stared at Alvida. _'Why can't I just say it already? Why can't I be brave like Luffy and this other guy? Why can't I believe in myself?'_ All these thoughts continued swirling in Coby's head as he continued stuttering in front of Alvida. "T-T-The…" Coby gritted his teeth and remembered all the injustices he had to face on this damn ship and all the innocent people that suffered because he wasn't brave enough or strong enough to beat Alvida and her crew. But…enough was enough! "The most ugly, cragged old hag ever!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

All of Alvida's crew dropped their jaw at hearing what Coby had just said. Was this kid insane?!

Alvida's eyes darkened as she heard the words come out of Coby's mouth. Coby just closed his eyes shut and waited for the impending club that would certainly end his life. But at least…he finally did something brave in his life.

Luffy broke out into another fit of laughter as he heard Coby's words. "Man, who knew how funny pink-haired people! Hahahahaha!" Luffy said as he held his sides to try to continue his laughter. The salmon-haired man joined the straw hat pirate in his own fit of laughter too, holding Luffy's shoulder to stay upright as the laughter was just too much for him.

"What did you just say?" Alvida whispered vehemently, twitch marks adorning her face.

"I…I'm going to join the navy! And then I'm gonna beat up pirates! Mean, old, ugly pirates like you and stop all the injustices all pirates like you have done!" Coby yelled at Alvida.

"Do you even know what you are saying?!" Alvida asked the insane little chore boy.

"I do! I…I'm gonna do what I want to do! I'm gonna join the navy and be a Marine and catch your lousy ass!" Coby screamed.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Both Luffy and the salmon-haired man continued laughing, holding each other's shoulders as they continued laughing.

Alvida had finally heard enough and raised her club to swing it down on the little pipsqueak. "THAT'S IT!"

Coby screamed in fright as he saw the club about to swing down. "No regrets! No regrets! I said it! I fought for my dream!"

The salmon haired man suddenly stopped laughing and stood in front of Coby. "I like your style, kid!" He said, readying his fist. Alvida screamed as she swung her club down on the salmon-haired man, but was shocked to see that he had…caught it with his bare hand?! Coby laid there shocked as he saw the salmon-haired man just stand there with no scream of pain as he caught the spiked club.

"What?!" Alvida yelled, confused as to why this man wasn't dead.

"Hehe…better luck next time!" The salmon-haired ignited his fist with an orange flame. " **Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!** " He yelled, colliding his fist with Alvida's stomach; sending her flying off into the distance which left a sparkle in the sky. "Oh…whoops. Hehe I may have put a little too much power in my hit…oh well! Hahahaha!" The salmon haired man laughed, scratching his head at his mistake.

Luffy's eyes sparkled as he saw the power this guy had. "Awesome! Join my crew!"

Coby just stood there flabbergasted at the way the man had ignited his fist. "W-wait! Did you eat a Devil Fruit too?!"

The salmon-haired man looked back to the small boy and chuckled. "Nope! That's all me, kid! No Devil Fruit required!"

The entire crew of Alvida stood with their mouths wide open. How strong were these two people?! "Oi, you guys!" Luffy called to them.

"Yes?!" They all responded in fright.

"Give Coby a small boat. He's gonna join the navy. Keep your mouths shut and let him go!" Luffy said to them.

"R-right!" They all responded back to him.

Coby stared in gratitude at both of the people that had helped him and was about to say something before cannonballs hit the water beside them and rocked the cruise ship, causing the three to wobble in place. The salmon-haired man grabbed his mouth closed and started muttering to himself. Finally, the boat stopped moving and they looked up to see three naval ships sailing towards them.

"It's the navy!" Coby yelled.

"Oh perfect timing! You should go see 'em!" Luffy said to the small boy. "But I'm a pirate so I'm outta here!" Luffy said as he retreated off of the ship.

The salmon-haired man sighed. "Guess I've got no choice. Hey, I'm heading with you, but this doesn't mean I'm on your crew!" He yelled to the straw hat pirate, but still received an exclamation of happiness from Luffy anyways.

"Wait, I just can't join the navy like this!" Coby yelled at them.

A small ship then lowered into the water carrying the orange-haired woman with all of the stolen loot she nabbed. Suddenly, another small ship fell onto the water beside her, rocking her ship. She closed one eye to keep water from splashing into her eye, but kept the left one open and saw a boy with a straw hat, a small pink-haired boy, and a salmon-haired guy on the same boat. Perhaps the small boy and older guy were siblings? If so, then the young boy had a cute older brother. She suddenly made eye contact with the salmon-haired young man and kept that same eye contact until another cannonball shot into the water, splashing water upwards. The two ships began sailing in different directions and parted ways, narrowly avoiding the line of sight from the naval ships. The salmon-haired man wondered if he would see that cute orange-haired pirate again…she had pretty eyes.

 _ **A couple hours later**_

The three lay bored on the ship with both Coby and Luffy laying back on the seats of the ship staring at the sky while the salmon-haired man sat stagnant on the ship just muttering to himself. "Oi, you ok over there?" Luffy asked the muttering man, who just gave him a thumbs up in return. Luffy then shrugged and continued staring at the sky.

Coby then sat up and moved to look behind them. "Looks like we managed to get away…" Coby said, staring behind them for any incoming naval ships.

Luffy then sat up when he heard that good news. "Whew, that was so fun!" Luffy said, laughing at his most recent adventure.

"Umm Luffy." Coby asked the straw hat pirate. Luffy turned to the small pink-haired boy. "If you're heading for the One Piece, then that means you're going to the Grand Line, right?"

"Yeah." Luffy replied.

"That place is referred to as a pirate graveyard, you know." Coby said to the straw hat pirate.

"Yeah. That's why I need a strong crew. Which is why I'm glad I met my first crew member! Uhh…hey what's your name?" Luffy asked the muttering salmon-haired man.

The man didn't turn around and muttered, "Nasgu Drgnalel."

Luffy and Coby tilted their heads at what he had just said. "Eh?"

The man took a deep inhale and breathed deeply several times. "Hrgh….I don't want to say. For now, you can just call me Natsu, ok?"

"Are you ok, Natsu?" Coby asked him.

"Y-Yeah. I just get…a little motion sickness when I'm on moving vehicles. Luckily, I've been able to better myself at being able to contain it, but it still kinda bugs me hehe." Natsu said with a grunt as the ship rocked a bit.

"Man, that sucks. Yeah, I kinda know what you mean. I can't swim." Luffy said to Natsu.

Coby tilted his head. "Eh why? Is it because of your Devil Fruit?"

"Kind of. Haha even before I ate it I never could really swim!" Luffy said, scratching his head bashfully. Coby sweatdropped at hearing that.

"You ate a Devil Fruit, eh? What kind?" Natsu asked.

"Gum-Gum Fruit. Now, I'm a rubber man!" Luffy replied.

Natsu looked at him strangely. "Wouldn't that make you a Gum man or something? I mean, you didn't eat the Rubber-Rubber Fruit, if there is such a thing, but still."

Luffy opened his mouth to reply, but immediately started scratching his head in thought. "Hmm….shut up!" He simply said.

Natsu's jaw dropped. "That's all you have to say?!"

"Yup! Shut up! It's my fruit so I can call myself whatever I want! Shishishishi" Luffy chuckled.

"Asshat." Natsu mumbled under his breath.

Coby chuckled awkwardly at their strange dynamic and turned to Natsu. "So wait, if you didn't eat a Devil Fruit, then why are you able to control flames?"

Natsu smirked. "Sorry, kid, that's a trade secret." He winked at him.

Coby opened his mouth to respond, but Luffy cut him off. "Who cares how he does it! It's just so cool! Now that you're in my crew things will really start to be even awesomer!" Luffy yelled.

"Yeah…still not on your crew. I'm just here for the free ride." Natsu replied.

Luffy stared at him blankly. He then put his hand on the side of the ship and started rocking it violently. "Join my crew! Join my crew! Join my crew! Join my crew!" Luffy continued to chant as he continued rocking the boat.

"Luffy, stop! You're gonna make him more sick and if you rock use even harder, you're gonna upturn the boat!" Coby yelled.

Natsu shut his mouth closed and held his stomach in nausea. "Hrgh…ok ok! If you stop shaking the boat, then I'll think about it ok!" Natsu yelled at the straw hat pirate.

Luffy stopped shaking the boat. "Hehe deal!"

"Little damn blackmailer…" Natsu muttered, turning to look away out into the distance.

Luffy turned to Coby again. "So, now that I've got one guy, I still need more people. Oi, Coby, what about that pirate hunter guy? What's he like? Uhh…Zolo?"

Coby stared confusingly at Luffy. "You mean Zoro? I heard he's being held prisoner at a naval base."

Luffy groaned. "Aw, so he's a weakling?"

Coby ran right up to Luffy. "Nothing like that! He's as terrifying as a demon!" Coby yelled, causing Natsu to snort at hearing Coby's last remarks. "Why are you asking about him?" The bespectacled boy asked Luffy.

Luffy chuckled. "Thought I might have him join my crew if he's a good guy!"

Coby stared slack jawed over at Luffy. "You're being reckless again!"

"C'mon, he might be a good guy!" Luffy argued.

"He's been caught because he's a bad guy! No! No way! No way! Absolutely-" Coby stopped yelling as Luffy bopped him on the head again. "Why did you hit me?"

"Just because." Luffy shrugged.

Natsu shook his head in bemusement and laid down on one of the benches on the ship. Might as well try to catch some Zzzz's before they made it to the navy base.

 _ **A couple hours later…again**_

Natsu felt the ship hit something and quickly shot up to see that they had just docked somewhere. He looked up to see several big buildings scattered around the island and raised his head even higher to see two humongous blue cylinder-like buildings that towered over the rest. "Oi you're finally awake!" Luffy said, jumping off of the ship onto solid ground. "We made it! The navy base city!" Luffy yelled as he began walking away to the look at the stalls of the city.

Coby suddenly pulled Luffy to him. "If you wander around at sea every time, you'll never become a pirate. You should at least find a navigator to join you."

"Alright let's eat!" Luffy yelled, blatantly ignoring Coby's good advice. Coby sighed as he saw the pirate walk towards small tavern. He then felt a small pat on his head and raised his head to see Natsu smiling at him.

"I'm sure he heard you. The kid is just too wrapped up in his own world to really respond to good advice when he hears it. Come on, let's go make sure he doesn't get killed along the way, huh?" Natsu said, patting the boy's shoulders. Coby smiled and walked after him and Luffy.

They entered the tavern called Food Foo and sat down at a table and ordered some food. After Coby stared blankly at Natsu and Luffy gorge themselves, he slowly picked at his food after losing his appetite.

Luffy suddenly burped. "We'll go our separate ways here! You do your best to be a great Marine, alright?"

Coby began brushing away tears from his eyes. "I will! Thank you both so much! Luffy, Natsu, you both have to become great pirates too!" Coby said to them. "Although we'll be enemies in the future." He muttered to himself.

"Hey probably, but that doesn't mean it has to be a bad rivalry. Think of it as a game of hide and seek or tag." Natsu chuckled.

"Say, I wonder if Zoro is still being kept at that Marine base." Luffy said awfully loud.

Suddenly, everyone began to freak out at just the mention of Zoro's name. Everyone inside the tavern flipped their tables in fright and retreated to the opposite side of the tavern to put as much distance between themselves and that boy with the straw hat. Coby leaned over to Luffy's side and whispered, "Looks like we can't just yell out the name 'Zoro.'" Luffy nodded in response. "I just saw a notice on the streets, there is someone called Lieutenant Morgan at the base," Coby said in an effort to change the subject.

The crowd instantly flipped out at the mention of the Morgan and retreated back to their corners in fright.

After walking out of that strange tavern, Luffy began laughing at remembering the events in there. "Hahahaha! What an interesting restaurant! I gotta go there again!"

Coby rubbed his chin in thought. "That's strange…I have a bad feeling about this!" Luffy and Natsu turned to listen to Coby. "I mean, I could understand why they'd be scared after hearing Roronoa Zoro's name, since he could escape at any time. But why would they be afraid of a Marine Lieutenant's name too?!"

"Well he could've done something bad, right?" Luffy stated.

"That's impossible!" Coby yelled.

"Luffy's got a point, Coby. No offense to Marines, or at least to the good Marines anyways, but most of the Marine's I've met in my life have been awfully corrupt." Natsu said.

Coby was about to reply angrily, but was stopped by the ginormous Marine base they had just arrived at. "Wow…" Coby muttered.

"Yeah…it looks pretty ugly up close." Luffy said, eliciting a shocked look by Coby and a chuckle from Natsu. Luffy motioned for Coby to go to the door. "Go ahead, Coby."

Coby shivered in fear. "B-But I'm not prepared yet…Besides, that incident at the restaurant got me thinking."

Luffy shrugged. "Suit yourself." He then hopped on top of the wall and slowly began pulling himself upwards.

"Ah! Luffy!" Coby yelled.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Oh boy." The fire mage then followed Luffy's lead and hooped on top of the wall too.

"Monster. I wonder where he is?" Luffy muttered as he began scoping the place for where Zoro was located. Luffy then felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Natsu pointing to something in the distance. The straw hat pirate then hopped down to the floor and proceeded to jog down the way. "I just saw something over there. Come on, guys!" Luffy said. Natsu and Coby followed after him and hopped on top of the wall with Luffy. "Oi look at that person."

Coby slowly pulled himself up and squealed in fright and felt down onto the ground. Natsu looked down to see what was wrong. "What's wrong?"

"Th…That black bandana and cloth around his waist. It…It's him! It's Roronoa Zoro!" Coby yelled to the two.

Luffy stared at the man tied to the man tied to a cross in the middle of the square. "So, he's Zoro, huh? Looks to me those ropes are pretty easy to break." Luffy said, pointing at the weak ropes that barely binded Zoro to the wooden cross.

"Stop joking! If you free him, he could make a mess in the town and even kill you!" Coby told Luffy in fright.

"Hey you!" A voice yelled to the three leaning on the wall. They all looked to see that it was Zoro's voice calling to them. "Could you please…come over and untie me? I've been tied up for 9 days and I'm exhausted." He panted exhaustingly, blood dripping from his mouth onto his plain white shirt.

"Look, he's smiling." Luffy said.

"I'll repay you. I could hunt down a fugitive and give you the rewards. I'm not lying. I'll keep my word." Zoro said.

Natsu shrugged. "Sounds like a good deal to me. Seems like a cool guy to me."

Coby stared at the both of them crazily. "No! Don't do it! If you free him, he'll kill us and escape!"

"He can't kill me. Because I'm strong too!" Luffy said.

"Same here! Besides, the poor guy looks exhausted anyways." Natsu said, pointing at the panting look on Zoro's face.

' _These two are really hopeless!'_ Coby thought to himself.

Unexpectedly, a ladder was placed right beside Coby by a small girl. The three looked at her strangely as she climbed up and shushed for them to be quiet. She then dropped down onto the small square where Zoro was tied up and quietly ran up to him. Zoro looked at the young girl inquisitively. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked her.

Coby bit his lip in fright. "Luffy, Natsu, go stop her! She could be killed!" Coby yelled to them.

Luffy turned to Coby. "Then go do it yourself." He said to Coby. Natsu, however, continued staring at the small girl and Zoro and listened to their conversation.

Zoro stared down at the girl intimidatingly. "Do you want to die or something? Get lost!"

The girl however was unphased by his glare and pulled out to big rice balls from her bag. "Umm, Mister, I made you some rice balls for you! You haven't eaten for a long time, right? This is the first time I made rice balls…"

"I'm not hungry! Go away!" Zoro yelled at the girl in the hopes that she would just get the message and leave before she got caught.

"But…" She mumbled.

"I don't want it! Leave me! I'll kill you if you don't go!" Zoro yelled back at her.

Suddenly, two gates creaked open revealing a blonde man in a purple suit walking in with two Marines at his side. "Don't pick on little kids or else I'll have to report to my father about it." Helmeppo said.

"Some weirdo came." Luffy mumbled.

"He must be someone important in the Marines. Thank goodness the girl is safe now." Coby said, breathing out a sigh of relief.

Natsu was still unconvinced that this nicely dress man was a nice guy. Something about him just rubbed him the wrong way. "We'll see." Natsu simply said, staring at the scene.

Zoro grunted as he saw Helmeppo walk cockily over to him. "Tch…if it isn't the Lieutenant's bastard son…"

"Bastard? Don't get cocky! My dad is a Marine Lieutenant!" Helmeppo screamed at him. He then looked down at the little girl and patted her head. "Well hello, little girl. These rice balls look pretty tasty." He said as he snatched one from her hands, eliciting an angry yell from the girl. He ignored it and popped the rice ball into his mouth and immediately spit it out. "Blegh! Horrible! You put too much sugar inside! You're supposed to put salt in these things!"

"But…but I thought they'll taste better if they're sweet!" She said to Helmeppo.

He then proceeded to smack the other girl's rice ball out of her hand and stomp it into the ground. "How could anyone eat something like this?!"

"Ah! Stop it! Stop! He can't eat this anymore!" She continued screaming at him, begging for him to stop.

Coby watched shocked as he saw a member of the Marine faculty do something so horrible. "T-That's so cruel! That girl worked so hard to make them!"

Finally, Helmeppo stopped stomping the rice ball into the dirt and smiled at the little girl. "Don't worry! The ants will eat them all up! Hehe."

The little girl began sniffling as tears fell from her eyes. "Why…I…I really tried hard to make them."

"Aww don't cry! It's no wonder I hate little brats so much." Helmeppo said as he rubbed his forehead. He then proceeded to crouch down and point to the sign next to him. "It's all your fault, you know? Didn't you see what was written here? It says, 'Anyone who helps a prisoner will be charged with the same crime.' And it's signed by my daddy, Marine Lieutenant Morgan." Helmeppo crouched down to glare at the girl. "You know how scary my daddy can be, right?" The little girl didn't answer as she continued to cry. Helmeppo then motioned to the Marine beside him, "Throw this brat out!"

"Huh?" The Marine replied.

Helmeppo turned to the Marine angrily. "I'm telling you to throw her outta here! Are you trying to disobey me?! I'm telling my dad!"

"A-Aye sir!" The Marine said. He then grabbed ahold of the girl and chucked her over the wall.

Luckily, Luffy quickly caught her before she could hit the ground. Coby ran to her and softly gripped her shoulders. "Are you alright?" He asked the little girl, getting a small nod from her.

Luffy looked to Natsu and saw him staring at the wall. "Luffy…I may not be real member of your crew, but I still feel I have to ask you this. Please…kick that guy's ass…or I will!" Natsu said, gripping his fists tightly. Luffy continued to stare at Natsu and hopped over the wall to see Zoro was alone now. Natsu quickly followed after him, leaving Coby with the small girl.

He walked over to Zoro and stared at him blankly. "You two still haven't left yet? Leave now, or else he'll go tell his Dad about it." Zoro said to them.

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm looking for someone to join my pirate fleet. I've already got Natsu here, even though he won't admit it and now I want you to join my crew!" Luffy smiled at Zoro.

Natsu raised his hand. "For the record, I'm not on his crew. Just sayin'."

Zoro glared at the two. "Pirate? Heh…so you just gave up on life and became a crook?"

Luffy turned to stare right into Zoro's eyes. "It's my dream! There's nothing wrong with being a pirate!"

"Hm? Don't tell me you're gonna set me free and force me to join you." Zoro smirked.

"I haven't made up mind yet. Since everyone thinks you're a bad guy and stuff." Luffy chuckled, touching his beloved straw hat.

"A bad guy, huh? I'll never join you because I have something that I need to take care of! I could survive even if you don't help me! I just need to stay alive for one month. That bastard kid promised me that he would let me go afterwards. I'm gonna do everything I can to stay alive and fulfill my dreams!" Zoro valiantly told the two.

Luffy and Natsu continued staring at Zoro until Luffy broke the silence. "Really? If I were you I think I would starve to death in a week." Luffy smiled.

"That's why we're different. Go find someone else to join you." Zoro muttered.

Luffy stared at him until finally her turned away to leave. He stared over at Natsu who still hadn't moved. "You comin'?" He asked him.

Natsu continued staring at Zoro and turned to Luffy. "I think I'll stay here a bit. Perhaps try to persuade him to join you so you can stop hounding me to join your crew. " Natsu beamed at the straw hat pirate. Luffy nodded and smiled back and proceeded to leave until…

"Hold on!" Zoro said. Luffy turned to look back at Zoro. "That…can you pick it up for me?" He asked, motioning to the crushed rice ball on the ground.

Luffy crouched down and picked it up. "You want to eat this? But the rice ball is all muddy. Then again, I guess you can't be too picky about food when you're hungry…" He muttered to himself.

"Shut up! Just give it to me. Let me eat all of it!" Zoro said, opening his mouth for the rice ball. Luffy then shoved the dirty rice ball into his mouth and watched him try to chew and swallow it without throwing up.

"Neh do you want to kill yourself?" Luffy asked Zoro.

Zoro coughed in response and swallowed one last time. "Tell that little girl…"

Luffy tilted his head. "Tell her what?"

Zoro lowered his head. "The rice ball tasted very good. Thank you very much."

Luffy beamed and agreed to tell the girl and ran over to the wall and hopped over it. After he left, Natsu took a seat next to the cross where Zoro was binded against and closed his eyes. "Oi, what are you still doing here?" Zoro asked him.

"Waitin'." Natsu simply replied.

"Why? Shouldn't you be following your captain?" Zoro asked him.

"First off, I'm not a part of his crew. I'm just going along for the ride. Secondly, I'm here because I want to be here and if you want to get me to leave, then feel free to. Thirdly, I'm here to make sure you don't get killed." Natsu said.

Zoro stared down at the salmon-haired man. "I'm not gonna die here. I still have something I need to do."

"I know you're not. People like you will never stop until they've met their ambitions which is why I respect you. But if you really believe that that shit stain of a guy is just gonna let a notorious bounty hunter like you just up and leave…then you're even more naïve than I thought." Natsu said to the green-haired man.

Zoro stared down and thought about his words. Helmeppo didn't seem like the man who would keep his word and the fact that he also killed his pet wolf obviously didn't do him any favors either. Zoro sighed as he realized that the guy seemed to be right and Helmeppo wasn't just going to let him leave her unless it was in a body bag. "So…what should I do hmm? Become a crook and sail the seas plundering from innocent people?" He asked the salmon-haired man.

"Gee no offense, but it's not like all pirate hunters are essentially good guys either. I once heard of a guy that took a job and finished it and then killed the people who hired him just for a little extra cash in his pocket. So, don't be throwing those misdeeds on me because what I am is nothing even close to the regular assholes who sail the seas. You can become a pirate if you like or continue doing what you're doing. I could honestly care less. Live life the way you want to and not how other people want you to. All I want you to do is realize that the kid who asked you to join his crew is not like any other man you'll ever meet." Natsu told Zoro.

A loud uproar was then heard from the center of town after Natsu had finished talking. "A hundred Belis that was because of him right now doing what he does best…being Luffy." Natsu muttered.

Zoro stared at the guy who was sitting beside him and looked to where the commotion was heard. The kid was obviously different from other pirates. Other pirates probably would've just left him or killed him themselves for failing to agree to join them. But that didn't mean he would join him. No…but it did help to paint a more clearer picture as to who the man with the straw hat was really like. As if the boy's ears were burning, the boy with the straw hat jumped over the wall again and ran over to Zoro.

"Yo! So, did he agree to join us, Natsu?" Luffy asked the salmon-haired man.

"Mmmm not exactly, but I think I've gotten him to realize that you're no ordinary guy at least." Natsu replied.

Luffy groaned. "Awwww you suck, Natsu!"

"Ah shut up! Like you could do better!" Natsu yelled at him.

Zoro growled as he listened to the two of them talk about him as if he wasn't here. "Listen, I already told both of you that I don't wanna be a pirate!"

Luffy turned from arguing with Natsu and held out his hand. "I'm Luffy. If I loosen up the ropes, then you're gonna join me, okay?"

"I've told you clearly! I have things I need to do. Besides, I'm not going to be a bad guy like a pirate." Zoro told Luffy.

Luffy frowned. "That's the difference? Besides, everyone already thinks you are a bad guy."

Zoro growled under his breath. "I don't care what they say about me! I haven't done one thing that I regretted in the past and it will be the same for the future! I won't become a pirate!"

Luffy continues staring at Zoro and nodded. "I don't care! You are going to join me!"

"Don't decide for yourself!" Zoro yelled at him.

"Hey, I heard that you use a katana, is that right?" Luffy asked the swordsman.

"Hrm…if I'm not being tied up, I could use a katana." Zoro replied.

"Where is the katana?" Luffy asked, crossing his arms.

"That bastard kid took it. It's something that I treasure most…other than my life!" Zoro told him.

"Ohh? Treasure, huh? It must be something great!" Luffy exclaimed, pointing at the swordsman. "Okay! I'm gonna go to where the bastard kid is and get your katana back."

"What?!" Zoro shouted, surprised that this kid would still help him even after he refused to join his crew. Maybe he really was a better person than he thought…

"But if you want me to return it to you, you'll have to join me!" Luffy yelled, laughing.

"THAT'S DIRTY!" Zoro bellowed.

"Ai, Luffy, blackmailing again? And just before I was talking you up to Zoro." Natsu mumbled, slapping his forehead in exasperation. "Just go along with it, Zoro. Trust me."

"Hahaha ok! I'm going! Natsu, stay here and make sure he doesn't die!" Luffy said as he ran off to look for Zoro's sword.

"…is he planning on sneaking into the base? What a fool!" Zoro muttered.

"Gee what gave it away?" Natsu snarked.

Luffy continued running around the navy base, but strangely enough, did not run into any Marines anywhere. "That's strange. There aren't any Marines around. Are they having a meeting?" Luffy asked himself, scratching his head in thought. "Never mind the katana. I can't find the idiot son like this." Luffy raised his head to see one of the humongous blue cylinder-shaped buildings he saw when they had first arrived on this island. He heard voices yelling from up there and so he decided to investigate. "Hmm… sounds like there are people there. Let's go up and see!" He yelled as he stretched his arm upwards towards the top of the building; shooting him up high. However, Luffy shot too high and missed the opportunity to land on top of it. "Crap! I shot myself too high!"

"What is that?!" One of the Marines yelled.

Luffy stretched his arms to grab ahold of the large statue of a man with an axe for a hand. His hands grabbed the ropes that were attached to it and slammed down hard thanks to his high speed and accidentally ended up snapping the statue in half. "Yikes!" Luffy yelled, jumping off the statue and onto the solid floor. Luffy looked behind to see a plethora of Marines staring at him with both shocked and angry faces. "S-sorry." He plainly said.

As the statue finally crashed to the ground, Lieutenant Morgan gritted his teeth in anger and bellowed, "CAPTURE HIM! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

"Yes, Sir!" The Marines replied.

"Dad, it's him! He's the one who hit me! I told you he's no good!" Helmeppo yelled.

Luffy turned to see the idiot son was here and quickly grabbed ahold of him and ran away with him in tow. "I've been looking for you, idiot!"

"Waaaaaaah! Let me go! Dad, help me!" Helmeppo screeched as he was being kidnapped.

Before Morgan could chase after them, one of the Marines told them that three people were at the execution site. "Another traitor?! Have them all killed!" Morgan yelled at his men.

The Marine aimed his weapon at the people down in the execution square and noticed one of them was a young boy. "H-hey, sir, one of them is just a kid." The Marine said.

Morgan stomped over to the Marine and placed his axe right at the man's throat. "I will have no insubordination in my ranks. So, either you shoot them or I axe you." He growled at the Marine.

The Marine stared fearfully at the Lieutenant and could see in his eyes that he wasn't joking. He carefully aimed his gun and tried to stop his hands from trembling.

Coby stared at both Zoro and Natsu shocked. "What?! Luffy is inside the base? He's too hot-headed!" Coby gritted his teeth angrily and worked to quickly untie Zoro's bindings.

"Oi! If you help me, they are going to kill you!" Zoro yelled at him.

"You shouldn't be arrested! I heard what you did for that girl and that doesn't mean they should kill you! I can't stand those kinds of Marines. Natsu…you were right. There are bad Marines out there, but I'm going to become a real Marine! Just like the way Luffy is determined to become the Pirate King!" Coby yelled boldly.

"Good job, Coby! I'm glad you're finally seeing the truth!" Natsu said.

"Wait! P-Pirate King?! You're joking, right?" Zoro yelled out.

"Hehehe I was a bit shocked when I first heard him, but he's serious! So, I wi-" Blood spurted from Coby's left shoulder as a bullet sailed through it knocking the young boy to the ground.

"COBY!" Natsu yelled, running to the injured boy.

Zoro gritted his teeth in fury as he looked upwards and knew exactly where the shot came from.

 _ **Inside the Navy Base**_

Luffy continued running from the Marines chasing after him and continued questioning Helmeppo for the location of Zoro's sword. "Where's Zoro's katana?!" Luffy screamed at the lieutenant's son.

"I'll tell, I'll tell! Just stop dragging me!" Helmeppo yelled back.

Luffy immediately stopped and started shaking Helmeppo back and forth. "Okay! Spill it!"

"They're inside my room! We…we already walked past it." Helmeppo said tiredly, exhausted from the day he was having.

"Grrr…why didn't you say so earlier!" Luffy yelled, punching Helmeppo in the face.

"Ahhh! That hurts don't hit me!" Helmeppo screamed in pain.

Guns suddenly cocked inside the hallway. "Don't move! Raise your hands above their head!" The Marines yelled at Luffy.

Luffy slowly turned around. "No!" He said and pulled Helmeppo in front of him. "Ok, now go ahead and shoot!" Luffy yelled at the Marines.

"No! No! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Helmeppo screeched.

 _ **Execution Square**_

"AAAAAA! I've been shot! Bleeding! I'm bleeding!" Coby shouted in pain. Blood slowly gushing from his shoulder.

"I know! I know! I told you put pressure on the wound so the blood has a harder time coming out!" Natsu yelled back to him. Coby nodded and used his other hand to hold the wound. "N-now…this is gonna hurt, Coby, but I have to cauterize the wound." Natsu said, igniting his fist. Coby began shaking his head frantically, but Natsu grabbed his head. "Listen, if I don't close that wound then you're gonna lose that arm! So please just listen to me, ok? I'm your friend and I'm trying to help you." Natsu said, his mouth trying to will itself into a smile. Coby stopped shaking his head and slowly nodded. Natsu grabbed a piece of cloth from the bag on his belt and bundled it together and shoved it in Coby's mouth. "Bite that! Otherwise, you're gonna be biting off your tongue." Natsu said, slowly moving his hand towards the open wound. Coby moved his hand away from the wound and…

"MMMPHRM! MMMMPHR!" Coby began screaming in pain as Natsu's fire touched his wound and began to close it. Nothing in the world could top this. Not even Alvida's iron club could.

Zoro watched as the young boy was suffering and his eyes darkened as he realized why he was shot. He was trying to help him…why? Why were they all trying to help him?! He was fine! That bastard son was going to let him…he wasn't was he? Why else would they try so hard to keep him locked up here? To blatantly leave out here to suffer so other people could see what happened when you messed with the authority of this island. Zoro gritted his teeth in anger. When he got out of these bindings…

Suddenly, the screaming stopped and Coby was breathing in and out slowly. "Y-you're still awake?" Zoro exclaimed, surprised to how much pain this kid could endure.

"I-I've been through similar experiences hehe" Coby chuckled weakly, watching Natsu wrap another piece of cloth around his shoulder.

"That bastard son…he's not gonna let me go, is he?" Zoro growled.

Coby shook his head negatively. "No, they were gonna kill you in three days. He never intended to keep his promise. That's why Luffy punched him on your behalf. Because he was toying with you." Coby tiredly replied to Zoro.

Zoro's eyes widened in surprise. That straw hat kid… "Wh-What did you just say?"

"The navy will never let the three of you off! Please, after we set you free, please protect Luffy! I will not force you to become a pirate, however he's one of my saviors. Luffy is very strong! As long as you join forces with him and Natsu, you will definitely be able to escape this town definitely!" Coby screamed at the top of his lungs.

Natsu turned to Zoro and looked deep into his eyes. A silent understanding was exchanged between that eye contact.

Footsteps were heard behind them with guns being cocked. "That's enough! The three of you have betrayed Lieutenant Morgan! Die here!" The Marines yelled as they aimed their weapons.

' _Luffy, you better get here quick...'_ Natsu slowly stood up.

One of the Marines pointed their weapons at him. "I'm warning you!"

Natsu's eyes stayed shut as he turned around to face the Marines. _'…because if you don't…'_

"Final warning!" Another of the Marines shouted.

'… _then I'm gonna kill 'em!'_ Natsu's eyes shot open revealing black scleras with red slits in the middle of them, staring right through the Marines and promising nothing but pain.

 _ **Helmeppo's Room**_

"Is this the room?" Luffy asked his blonde captive. He received no response seeing as Helmeppo was unconscious due to screaming his head off from almost getting shot. He looked around the room and saw three swords leaning on the wall. "Alright! Found the katana!" Luffy ran to the swords and scratched his head as to which one was Zoro's. "Hmm…I'll just take all three just in case!" Luffy said to himself, grabbing the swords. Suddenly he heard gun shots being rang in the execution square. "Coby! Natsu! Zoro!" Luffy screamed and ran to the window to see what was going on. He saw Coby on the ground, Zoro still tied up and…Natsu was being shot!

Luffy quickly tied the swords to his back and grabbed the edge of the window and ran to the opposite side of the room. " **Gum-Gum Rocket!** " He yelled as his body shot through the glass window and took the remainder of the bullets that were fired. The bullets fired into Luffy and stretched his skin until they were fired back thanks to his skin's elasticity. Luffy then turned around to see Natsu bleeding from his gunshot wounds. "Natsu! Are you ok?! I-I'll get a doctor to fix you up right away jus-" Luffy stopped frantically yelling as he heard Natsu begin to chuckle.

"Maybe it was destiny that we met Luffy…because bullets don't affect me either." Natsu chuckled. Luffy looked down at his wounds to see them slowly healing.

"H-How?" Coby asked, a shocked look on his face.

Zoro just stared wide-eyed at both Luffy and Natsu. Both of them could take bullets no problem…just who were these people.

The Marines and Lieutenant Morgan all stood there with their jaws wide open at what just happened.

"Hehe…like I said Coby. It's a trade secret" Natsu said, pushing Luffy out of the way.

"W-who are you people?!" Zoro exclaimed.

Luffy turned to Zoro with a grin. "Hehe…I am the one who will become the Pirate King!"

Natsu looked to Zoro with a determined stare and a smile. "Me…I'm just a guy who knows right from wrong. And what's happening here is definitely wrong!" He then cracked his knuckles as he walked towards the cowering Marines. "Now you figure out which sword is his while I…properly introduce myself to these Marines!" Flame exuded from his skin as he walked closer to the Marines.

"H-He's summoning fire from himself. He's a Devil Fruit user!" One of the Marines yelled out.

Natsu chuckled as he heard that. "Devil Fruit? Oh no no. You see, I don't need to eat a fruit that was born from the Devil himself. No…because a demon like me already has enough Devil inside of him!" Natsu yelled as he summoned flames inside his mouth. " **Fire Dragon's Roar!** " Natsu then spewed flames onto the cowering Marines, burning some while other's fled to avoid the fire.

Zoro panted as he saw Natsu summon fire like it was nothing and remembered seeing the two fend of bullets like it was nothing. "I don't know if you're both the offspring of the devil, but I don't care. Rather than die here…I'd rather adhere to your request and become a pirate!"

Luffy raised his arms in a cheer. "Hooray! I've got my second companion!"

"Ok, ok! Now hurry up and get these damn bindings on me!" Zoro said.

"Oh yeah, so which of those swords are yours?" Luffy asked.

"They're all mine. I use three katanas when I fight." Zoro replied.

"Oh cool!" Luffy yelled, finally untying the bindings and handing Zoro his swords.

Zoro grinned as he felt the weight of his swords in his arms again. He sighed contented. "Now this though, I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman! I no longer care if my name is clean or not…bad guy, good guy, it no longer matters! As long as my name is known worldwide! If you do something that ends up in the way of my goal, then I will you cut your own stomach to say sorry!" Zoro growled at Luffy.

Luffy returned his growl with a grin. "Good! To be the world's number one swordsman is someone the Pirate King should definitely have on his team. If you can't even accomplish something that small, then I would be very embarrassed as well!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Heh! Well said! Now we should probably help your friend over there before he gets overwhelmed…or he burns those Marines alive. Whichever comes first." Zoro said, motioning to Natsu using his flames to scare the Marines.

"Hehe good idea!" Luffy said.

Lieutenant Morgan gritted his teeth when he saw his Marines being decimated with that boy with the pink hair and made his way to lop his head off. "You weaklings! Can't you handle one man!"

Natsu grinned as he heard that. His hand wrapped around the front of someone's gun and pulled him in for a flaming fist and threw him into a group of other Marines. He then jumped up into the air and raised his foot up into the air, **"Fire Dragon's Claw!** " and slammed it down onto the ground, creating a shockwave that uprooted the Marines from the ground and caused them to crash to the floor. Natsu snickered as he saw how easy they fell and looked down to see a large shadow cover him. He looked up to see a fuming Morgan glare down at him.

"Any last words?" Morgan growled at the salmon-haired pirate.

Natsu raised four fingers in the air. "Just four…" He raised his arm up in the air, " **Fire Dragon's Cock Shot!** " and slammed his elbow straight into Morgan's unprotected jewels. Morgan's eyes bulged from his sockets as the flaming elbow collided with his jewels and slowly kneeled down to cover them. "Oooooo boy, that sounded like it hurt too. Maybe you should invest in another one of those iron helmets for your other head. You know, kinda like the one you got on your ugly mug right now. Also, I guess I kinda lied to you since I technically said six words instead of four…my bad." Natsu sheepishly chuckled with a shrug. Natsu then kneeled down to whisper in Morgan's ears, "You're really lucky the bullet went through his shoulder and not his heart. Perhaps that means that there are better Marines than you out there, or it means that you have lousy shots in your ranks. Either way, if I ever see you again…nothing will keep me from showing you true **hell.** " Natsu noted the extra sweat pouring from Morgan's temple and took that as his cue to leave.

Morgan slowly raised his head and glared at the retreating salmon-haired pirate and slowly raised himself. He was going to kill him…kill him…KILL HIM! He raised his axe over his head until…

…three slash marks sliced into his skin and he collapsed to the floor.

"Hehe I almost didn't see you there, Zoro. You're pretty fast for a guy who has barely eaten in nine days." Natsu snarked.

"Hmph…and you've got pretty got big balls for a guy with pink hair." Zoro smirked at him.

Natsu nodded his head. "Touche. Thanks again."

"Don't thank me. Thank the captain." Zoro grunted through the sword in his mouth.

Natsu raised his head to see several other Marines getting their ass handed to them by the rambunctious straw hat pirate.

A Marine swung downwards at the kid, but missed and received a strong, rubbery punch to the jaw. Two Marines took his place and shot at Luffy, but the bullets ricocheted back at them and hit them in the legs. Luffy then stretched his leg backwards, " **Gum-Gum Leg Sweep!** " and swept the remaining Marines straight into a wall. Luffy blew out a breath of fresh air as he wiped his sweaty brow. "Phew, didn't think I'd fight this much before dinnertime." He chuckled to himself.

Suddenly he heard a gun being cocked and saw Helmeppo pointing a gun point blank at Coby's head. "If you want this guy to survive, then don't move! If either you or your friend's move, then I'll shoot." Helmeppo screamed.

Coby stood tall and didn't shiver once even though a gun was pointed directly at him. He saw how brave Luffy, Natsu and Zoro were and wanted to emulate them. "Luffy! I…I don't wanna be in your way. So…I won't be afraid to die!" Coby screamed at his friend.

Luffy grinned at his smaller friend. "Okay! I know! You stupid son, Coby's not afraid of death!" Luffy yelled at him, pulling his arm back.

Helmeppo pushed the gun deeper into Coby's temple. "Hey! You idiot I told you not to move or I'm gonna shoot!"

Luffy grinned. "Hehe go ahead and shoot! Because no pistol is faster than mine!" He then stretched his arm back as far as he could, " **Gum-Gum…** " and then his arm came sailing forward; colliding into Helmeppo's face, " **Pistol!"** Luffy yelled as his fist crunched bones inside Helmeppo's head. Helmeppo then flew back and fell to the floor unconscious.

"Hehe like father like son, eh?" Natsu yelled to Luffy and Coby.

"T-The Lieutenant lost! Lieutenant Morgan has been defeated!" The Marines shouted. All of them raised their heads from the downed Morgan to the pirates that had defeated him.

"If you still want to arrest us, come and get us." Zoro dared the Marines, giving them a glare akin to a demon's.

The Marines looked to each other…and celebrated. "We're free! We are out of Morgan's control! Long live the Marines!" They all shouted, hugging their brethren in celebration of this momentous occasion.

Luffy tilted his head. "What's going on? They seem to be happy that Morgan was defeated!?" Luffy said confusingly.

"Everyone hated Morgan!" Coby said happily.

Suddenly Zoro began to fall before Natsu caught him in his arms. "He must be exhausted! We need to take him somewhere quick!"

"Here follow me! I know where we can take him!" Luffy shouted, sprinting off to a certain little girl's house.

After Luffy, Natsu, Coby had brought the unconscious Zoro to the little girl's house and convinced her mother that they didn't need to fear them, Zoro quickly recovered from his days of starvation and exhaustion. "I'm full! Haven't eaten for nine days, almost starved to death!" Zoro bellowed happily.

"Then it's impossible for you to last a month!" Luffy muttered, stuffing his face full of food.

"Yeah, he's got a point, Zoro." Natsu said, his mouth also stuffed with food.

"Hey, how are you two able to eat so much? Neither of you were almost starved to death and yet here you are stuffing your faces like it's your last meal!" Zoro growled at them. Luffy and Natsu answered with a shrug and kept eating.

Coby rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. "Sorry…even I ate quite a lot…"

"Don't worry! Keep eating, you saved our town!" The mother said happily.

The little girl walked up to Luffy. "You're so strong!"

"Yep! I'm strong! And I'll get stronger later on too!" Luffy replied.

"Oi, Luffy, what are your plans next after this?" Zoro asked.

"Hehe simple, I'm going to head for the Grand Line!" Luffy replied.

Coby sighed as he heard Luffy say more crazy things. "Aye…normally I'd try to stop you, but something tells you that no matter what I say you won't listen, will you?"

Luffy nodded in response with a smile.

Coby's head dropped at his response.

Natsu patted Coby's head. "Relax. With Luffy getting stronger and Zoro on his crew, there's much less to worry about."

Coby raised his head to look at Natsu. "Aren't you going with them?"

Natsu opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Luffy. "Of course he is! We're friends! Right, Natsu!" Luffy yelled happily.

Natsu rolled his eyes at Luffy's obvious trick. "Oh come on! That's not fair! If I say no, then that's like me saying we're not friends. That's almost worse than blackmailing!" Natsu screamed.

"Shishishishi I'll take that as a yes!" Luffy said.

"Hrgh…stupid freakin' asshat. Lucky I don't just throw ya in the ocean…" Natsu said, continuing to mutter to himself.

Luffy chuckled and looked at Coby. "But no matter where we are or what side we're on, we'll be friends, right Coby?"

Coby stared at Luffy with a happy look on his face. "I…I've never had friends before."

"Hehe well not anymore that is. You've got three good ones right here for ya!" Natsu beamed.

Coby lowered his head. "I never had friends growing up…every time I would be picked on…no one would stand up for me. But the three of you…taught me to live my dream! So…thank you very much!" Coby yelled, bowing to his new friends with tears in his eyes.

Zoro smirked at the kid. "Before you start worrying about us though, you'd better start worrying about yourself though."

"Huh? Why?" Coby asked.

"Even though you were just doing chores on a pirate ship, you're still a small pirate. Don't underestimate the Marine's ability to gather information. If they know your past, they won't let you join for sure!" Zoro said, tapping the handle of his sword on Coby's forehead.

The scene was abruptly interrupted when the front door was swung open, revealing several Marines outside. "Hello, I'm sorry to interrupt this gathering, but…we are wondering if you really are…pirates." One of them asked.

Luffy was the first one to speak up. "Yes, I just found my second crew member, so that would make us pirates now!"

"Oh come on I haven't even agreed to joining in your crew yet, Luffy! I don't count!" Natsu yelled.

"Yup! The three of us are pirates!" Luffy beamed at the Marine officer.

"Don't just ignore me!" Natsu screamed at Luffy.

The Marine officer coughed loudly to get their attention again. "Even though you are pirates, in reality…you saved our town and base. For that we are grateful. However, since you are pirates, as Marines we cannot allow you to stay longer. We ask that you please leave immediately and as for the events that occurred here, we will be reporting it to the headquarters."

Suddenly the townsfolk erupted into an uproar. "Hey, Marines, what kind of bullshit is this?! They are our town's saviors!"

Luffy sighed and picked himself off of his chair. "Hmmm, well then, let's go. Thank you for the food, ma'am."

Natsu bowed to the mother. "It was really good food."

"You have my thanks…both of you." Zoro said, looking to both the mother and her daughter.

The three of them then headed off without even a goodbye or anything to Coby. The Marine officer took note of that and questioned it. "Hey, kid, aren't you with their group?"

Coby stared at the floor and gritted his teeth.

' _But no matter where we are or what side we're on, we'll be friends, right Coby?'_

"I'm not…I'm not…I'm not with them!" Coby yelled out.

Luffy grinned and turned away about to leave until…

"Please hold on. Is he telling the truth?" The Marine officer asked Luffy.

Luffy stared blankly at both him and Coby. He raised his finger to point at him. "I know what that guy used to do."

"L-Luffy?" Coby asked, shocked.

"I can't remember where but, he used to be with this faaaaaaaat female pirate…I think her name was Albida or something." Luffy continued on.

"Stop…don't say anymore." Coby pleaded. _'If they know I worked on a pirate ship, then I won't be able to join the Marines'_

Luffy stepped closer to Coby and tapped him on the head. "It was a ugly and fat female pirate. This guy spent two years there…"

" _Please shut up!'_

"SHUT UP!" Coby yelled as he punched his friend in the head.

Natsu and Zoro continued watching with grins on their faces.

Luffy grinned as he felt the fist collide with his face. "You deserve a beating!" Luffy yelled as he punched Coby in the face. He then repeatedly continued throwing weak punches to Coby until the Marine officer put a stop to it.

"Both of you stop it! I won't allow this town to get into any more fights!" He yelled at Luffy.

Zoro then proceeded to pull Luffy off of Coby, causing Coby to fall to the floor. "Hey! You went overboard! Stop it!"

"I know he isn't your friend now! Please leave this town immediately!" The Marine officer yelled.

Coby laid there on the floor as his friends left the town and gritted his teeth in anger. But not at Luffy…at his own self. _'He…he did it for me. He wanted to make me mad…make me hit him. Even in the very end…I still needed their care. I am so damn useless. I am…an imbecile.'_ He then slowly stood up and walked to the Marine officer and bowed. "Please let me join the Marine! Even if it's chores, I will still do them!"

One of the other officers then emerged from the crowd. "Captain! I'm against it! We cannot accept a person whose past is unclear to us!"

Coby gritted his teeth and yelled at the top of his lungs. "I AM A MAN WHOSE DREAM IS TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE MARINES!"

Everyone stared shocked at the young boy's outburst. The captain of the Marines continued to stare at Coby for a while. He then walked past the boy and muttered, "Don't think we don't know of your past as a pirate. You underestimate our power…but, I will still allow you to join!"

Coby stood firm even after he became elated from the captain's words. "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!"

 _ **Docks**_

"You know, I think Coby will become stronger and more independent in the future!" Luffy said to his crew.

"It wouldn't be such a big deal! Nice act though. This way, even though he's been a pirate before, they'll surely let him in now." Natsu said.

"Who knows. Maybe he'll even give you a run for your money, Luffy." Zoro chuckled.

"Hehe maybe!" Luffy replied.

"Alright. Time to go before anything else happens. Not leaving anything behind, that's what pirates are all about!" Zoro yelled.

"Haha that's what I'm talking about!" Luffy exclaimed.

"L-Luffy!" A voice yelled from behind them.

They all turned to see that Coby was standing right behind them. "Coby?" Luffy asked.

Coby raised his right hand and gave Luffy the proper Marine salute. "Thank you very much! I will never forget you three for the rest of my life!"

"Hmm…I've never seen a Marine saluting pirates before. I could get used to that!" Natsu yelled, giving a big thumbs up to Coby.

"Hehe Coby! We'll meet again someday!" Luffy yelled.

"Everyone! Group salute!" The Marine officer yelled to his subordinates, causing the other Marines to salute the pirates. He continued staring at the retreating boat as he told Coby, "You have great friends."

Coby sniffled as he watched them go. "Yes sir!"

The Marine officer then sighed. "We just saluted pirates and have violated the Marine's codes! So! The punishment will be no food for a week!" He yelled to the other Marines.

"Yes sir!" They yelled back.

Natsu took a seat in the back of the tiny ship and took several deep breaths. "Glad to see that there are no hard feelings between them and us."

"Yeah, well just wait till Morgan sees you again. Punching him in the crotch surely made him an enemy for life." Zoro snorted.

"Hehe well what's life without a few enemies?" Natsu laughed.

Luffy stretched his arms high above his head in joy. "Yahoo! We're off! Grand line! Here we come!"

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAND THAT'S A WRAP! Oh man that took a while to type, but hey I think it was worth it. I've wanted to do this crossover for a LOOOOOONG time and I'm glad I'm finally able to do it. Obviously, it's gonna take me a long time to get to the awesome arcs like the Arlong one and Enies Lobby, but I'll try to get there as soon as possible. Also, since I am a harem writer…guess what this will be? That's right! Single pairing….nah just kiddin'…HAREM! After all, their pirates so what's a little polyamory, right? The people I just know that are going to be in Natsu's harem are Nami, Robin, Alvida, and Hancock with some others possibly making it in.**

 **If you liked this chapter or want to see someone else in the harem, please favorite/follow/and REVIEW!**

"


	2. Chapter 2

**HELLO AGAIN! I just want to start off by saying thanks to the people who favorited, followed, reviewed my story. It really meant a lot to me. Also, I noticed that in those reviews most did not like the idea of adding Alvida into the harem. I get it though, after all, the manga and anime haven't exactly showed her good side, but I'll try to fix up her character a bit. Hopefully, you'll like the changes I make to her and if not, then that's ok too. Glad to see that no one was mad about Hancock being in there though!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or Fairy Tail. They belong to their respective owners.**

Luffy, Natsu, and Zoro had been sailing for quite some time after leaving the navy base. A growl was heard in the ship and was determined to have come from none other than Luffy's hungry stomach. "Ugh…I'm so hungry." Luffy groaned, holding his empty stomach.

"Well, maybe we'd be somewhere if you could freakin' navigate us somewhere!" Natsu yelled at Luffy.

"You know, it's funny that you have absolutely no navigation skills for someone who's hellbent on becoming the Pirate King." Zoro mumbled.

Luffy shrugged. "Why? I've always been just wandering! Besides, you're like me too, wandering and capturing pirates for rewards. And Natsu, you fell out of the sky so…well that's pretty cool actually." Luffy said with a grin.

Zoro facepalmed at Luffy's idiocy. "First off, I never just lived off of my rewards. Second, I was searching for a man. That's why I left out to sea. But now I can't find my way home." He said with a grunt.

"Oh so you're lost?" Luffy asked.

"SHUT UP! YOU"RE THE ONE WHO'S LOST!" Zoro screamed.

Natsu covered his ears. "Ok ok! Stop yelling already. Sooner or later we'll have to see some kind of land. Hopefully, when we land we can get you guy's some kind of navigator or something."

Zoro angrily placed his hand on the side of the ship and leaned his head against it. "Never heard of a pirate who can't navigate. If a navigator wasn't your first choice for a crew mate, then what was?"

"Hmm…a chef, then a musician…you know the basics." Luffy grinned.

"HOW ARE THOSE THE BASICS?!" Zoro yelled, massaging his forehead and wondering if he had made a big mistake following this idiot.

They suddenly heard a grumble and looked to see Natsu's stomach was empty too. "Hehe…looks like I'm kinda hungry too." Natsu chuckled sheepishly.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Amateurs." He mumbled while his stomach suddenly rumbled too.

"Hehe looks like all of our stomachs our in sync now, huh?" Luffy laughed.

They all then sighed and fell onto their backs to look at the sky. Suddenly, Zoro saw something in the sky. "Look! It's a bird!"

"Looks pretty tasty…I think I'm gonna eat it!" Luffy screamed boisterously.

"How are you gonna get it?" Zoro asked with his eyebrow raised.

Luffy grinned. "I'll go get it with my specialty! **Gum-Gum…** " his hands grabbed the wooden sail and stretched his arms as far as they could go and flung himself upwards. " **Rocket!** "

Zoro used his hand to cover the sun and watched his captain fly towards the bird. "Can't believe he thought of that…"

 _ **BITE**_ **!**

Zoro's jaw dropped as he saw Luffy's head get caught in the mouth of the bird and be helplessly carried away by it. "IDIOT!" Zoro screamed.

"No offense to Luffy or anything. I know he's super strong and stuff…but that kid's as dumb as a doornail." Natsu muttered, shaking his head in bemusement.

Quickly, Natsu and Zoro grabbed the oars and began rapidly paddling in the same direction the bird was taking Luffy. Behind them though, three voices were heard screaming.

"Help us! Stop the boat!" One of the people screamed.

"There are people in trouble here too?!" Natsu yelled.

Zoro turned his head to yell at the people behind them. "We don't have time to stop so if you wanna get on this boat then you're gonna have to get on yourselves!"

Swiftly, the three people in the water quickly began swimming towards their boats in hopes of being saved from drowning. Luckily, they were able to get on safely before they were swallowed up by the water.

"Heh! Your climbing skills ain't bad!" Natsu said to the three pirates.

"Were you two trying to run us over!" The three yelled together.

Suddenly, the three pirates grabbed their swords and ordered them to stop because this was a pirate named Buggy's territory. Natsu and Zoro gave each other a look and nodded. Shortly after the three pirates vicious beating, the three told them about a cute girl that had stolen their boat and treasure while somehow knowing that a storm was approaching that destroyed the boat they were in. "And that's what happened! Pretty awful how she deceived us, huh?" One of the pirates said.

"Yeah sure. Something tells that your help didn't come cheap." Natsu growled.

The three pirates trembled under his glare. "She offered us her treasure, but when we opened it up, it was empty! We're the victims here!"

Zoro rolled his eyes and gave them his own glare. "Shut up and just hurry up with the paddling! If we don't find my friend than there is gonna be hell to pay!"

"Y-Yes sir!" They yelled.

Zoro elbowed Natsu to get his attention. "If we do find her, maybe we could get her to join us. She seems to know weather patterns pretty accurately."

Natsu nodded. "Seems like it. But we should be careful. She's obviously a good liar."

"Right." Zoro said, turning his head to look at the Buggy pirates again. "So who's this Buggy that owns this territory?"

"He's our leader. Haven't you ever heard of Buggy the clown? He's a dangerous man who ate the Devil's Fruit."

"Is that so?" Zoro asked.

Natsu grumbled as the pirates were paddling too slow. "Alright, this is taking forever." He said as he pushed the pirates to the other side of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Zoro asked.

"You'll see." Natsu turned around with a smile. "Now I'd just like to say thank you for joining us today on the Natsu Express. We ask that you keep your arms and feet in the boat at all times. Please no drinking or smoking while the boat is in motion and please eat responsibly. I'd like you all to look to the person to your left and please hold on to them tightly because…things are gonna get pretty speedy right now." Natsu then turned around and took in a huge breath of air.

"What's your friend talking about?" One of the pirates asked.

"I don't…just listen to him" Zoro mumbled, growling as he felt one of the pirates grab ahold of him.

" **Fire Dragon's Roar!"** Natsu yelled as he jettisoned the boat forward with the power of his flames. The boat sped through the water, shaking the boat vigorously leaving the pirates and Zoro scared that they would fall off. Natsu began to sweat as he felt the boat shake, but remained strong.

One of the pirates looked ahead of them to see that land was nearing. "Land ho!" He yelled, hoping to get the attention of Natsu. Natsu gave them a thumbs up and slowly started to speed down his flames until the boat slowly began to stop on the dock of the island. "Phew…we made it. Now that we're safe…we can rob you of a-" He was suddenly cut a wobbly flaming fist to the face.

"Hrgh…I knew you were gonna say…ugh that. Oh man, I'm gonna hurl…" Natsu moaned as he leaned over the side of the ship to hurl his guts out.

The two other pirates curled their noses at the stench of the vomit but felt two swords on the necks before they could grab their own. "Still want to put up a fight?" Zoro grinned.

They immediately nodded no and ran off, while grabbing their fallen comrade, to look for their clown leader. After a few minutes of vomiting, Natsu got up and shakily stepped off of the boat. "You ok?" Zoro asked, patting his friend on the back while also covering his nose at the smell.

Natsu nodded slowly. "Yeah, sorry about that. I would have just used that technique earlier, but I haven't really been able to wean myself off of the vomiting side effect." He said, chuckling awkwardly.

"Yeah, I think we can suffer a couple of hours at sea than have to smell that…damn, what do you eat?!" Zoro groaned as he shut his nose even tighter.

"Hehe…let's just go look for Luffy before he gets himself killed." Natsu said, pointing to the center of the town.

"You really think he's here?" Zoro asked.

Natsu tapped his nose with a grin. "The nose knows."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Luffy hit his hands against the iron cage he was thrown in by Buggy. "Come on, let me out! I'm starving! Oh…this is all that man girl's fault! We'll see if I put her in my crew now!" Luffy moaned.

Buggy looked at the buffoon and began laughing. "He really is an idiot! I can see why you traded him in for a much better model, girly." He said elbowing Nami.

"Hehe…y-yeah." Nami muttered, looking sadly at the boy she had deceived. But why should she feel bad? He was just a stupid pirate she had tricked. She had tricked so many others in the past, like those three idiots out at sea recently. So…why did she still feel so bad right now then?

Buggy interrupted her thoughts by raising his glass with a yell to his crew, "Men! A toast to our new member of the crew, Nami!" Everyone followed his lead and raised their mugs to the cute orange-haired woman. Nami also raised her drink and downed it when she saw they had begun drinking.

' _Ok, everything is going according to plan. Once they pass out from all the booze, I'll still the chart and the treasure and get out of here!'_ She said with a smirk, however, her eyes trailed over to the boy with the straw hat. _'Hmm…I guess I should let him out too. I mean, he's not like those cruel and vindictive pirates I've met before…so I guess this one time I'll show kindness to one pirate.'_

Luffy grumbled as he saw everybody eating while he was forced to just watch. His stomach rumbled again and he quietly stretched his arm to try to reach over to the buffet table. Sadly, he kept missing as he growled to himself until a piece of meat was placed in front of him. Luffy raised his eyes to see it was Nami that gave him the food. "Here take it." She said.

' _Hmm…maybe she's not so bad after all.'_ He thought as he grabbed the piece of meat and started eating it. "Thanks." He mumbled.

Nami almost smiled at seeing the young boy calmly eat the piece of meat even though he should have been angry with her. She then started to walk backwards until she heard a familiar voice. "Food for the enemy, Nami?" Buggy said, his arms crossed.

Nami chuckled sheepishly. "Just a…way of saying goodbye to my captain. I mean, he wasn't all bad. He is just…kinda dumb is all hehe…" She lied, hoping Buggy wouldn't see through her lie.

Buggy remained stoic as he stared at Nami. "A parting gift…what a good idea, Nami!" He then turned around to order his men to bring out the Buggy Ball. Quickly, a few of his crew brought out a huge cannon along with a large cannonball with Buggy's Jolly Roger on it. "Ready the cannon, boys. Let's give a little demonstration to our new crew member!" Buggy yelled to his crew. The pirates responded by putting the large cannonball inside of the cannon and firing it. The cannon fired through several houses, destroying them and leaving nothing but rubble and debris. "You see that! With my Devil Fruit powers and my Buggy Balls, I'll rule the Grand Line!" Buggy yelled, earning other shouts of praise from his crew.

Luffy finally finished his meat as he heard Buggy finish his boring speech. "No you won't! Because I'm gonna be the Pirate King!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs.

Nami slapped his head angrily at his shouting. "Idiot! Are you trying to make him angry?!"

Buggy turned around to glare at the straw hat pirate. "You really are an idiot, aren't you? Men, prepare the cannon again!" Buggy yelled, his men once again prepping the cannon. They slowly turned the cannon to aim it at Luffy and placed the Buggy Ball inside. "Now for the perfect parting gift for your past captain, Nami!" He yelled, giving her a box of matches. "Prove your loyalty to me and blast your captain away to smithereens."

Nami stared at the matches in fear and tried giving them back to Buggy. "T-That's ok, Captain. I mean, I don't hate the guy that much. Let's just go back to the party." Nami said nervously.

Buggy stared back at Nami and pushed the matches back into her hands. "Do it! Either you blow him away or I blow both of you away!" Buggy threatened, glaring right into her eyes. No…she couldn't do this. Even if she did hate pirates…killing one just seemed too wrong. Her hands began to shake as she stared at Luffy who was also looking at her. "Hurry! Kill him now, Nami!" Buggy shouted at her.

Luffy continued staring at her inquisitively. "You're shaking." He said to her. "This is what happens when you face pirates with a weak amount of determination."

Nami looked at Natsu in fear. "What? To kill someone, even a pirate, like it's nothing?"

Luffy shook his head. "No. It's to be willing to risk your life. No matter what." He said, staring at her with a look of pure resolve.

Nami kept staring at Luffy, shocked at what she was hearing. Suddenly, one of Buggy's pirates came up to her and grabbed the matches. "Quit messing around and stop spoiling the fun! Let me do it!" He said, beginning to light the match. Nami would later look back on this on a moment in her life where she may not have known exactly why she did what she did…but was glad she did do. She reached the three pieces of her staff and clicked them together and slammed the pirate into the ground, knocking him out cold.

Buggy gritted his teeth in anger at what he just saw. "NAMI! I gave you the honor of being able to light the cannon and you betray me?!"

Luffy grinned. "So you're saving me now?!"

Nami bit her lip in anger at what she had just done. "Shut up, idiot! I did that because I don't want ti kill anyone, even a no good pirate like you. I don't want to become anything like an evil pirate!" She yelled. She grit her teeth angrily, "Pirates stole the life of someone who was precious to me. I hate pirates more than anything!"

Luffy nodded his head slowly in understanding. "Ah, so that's why you don't like pirates." HE then turned his head to see that…"AH! The fuse is still burning!" He shouted.

"Everyone, kill that woman painfully!" Buggy shouted to his men as they all ran towards Nami with their swords drawn.

' _The fuse is still lit?'_ She thought as she deflected a swing of a pirate's sword and narrowly avoided another one. She ducked low and swept one of the pirate's legs, causing him to fall to the ground. Two more took his place and made their way to cut this traitor into pieces. "Crap!" She yelled, pushing the pirates back with her staff and rushed to put out the fuse. Suddenly she was beaten by…a salmon-haired man. She raised her eyes to see that it was the same pirate who she made eye contact with when she was escaping that pirate's ship.

Natsu's fingers closed tightly on the lit fuse, actively defusing it. "Ah, so you're the evil woman those three pirates were talking about. I'm glad to see that we met again because I've been dying to tell you…you have beautiful eyes…well for an evil woman." Natsu grinned.

Nami stared at him with a light blush and forgot about two other pirates rushing her from behind. She suddenly heard grunts of pain coming from behind her and slowly turned around to see what had happened. Her eyes turned to see an emerald-haired man using two swords that were sheathed to smack the pirates to a stop. "Tch…just how many of you are charging one woman?" Zoro growled.

Luffy beamed happily at seeing his friends again. "Natsu! Zoro!"

Natsu turned around to see the straw hat boy was stuck in a metal cage trying to bite his way out. "Luffy…I don't think you'll be able to bite your way outta there." Natsu sweatdropped.

"Not with that attitude I won't!" Luffy yelled, resuming his chomping on the cage.

The pirates that rushed into Zoro's swords then fell flat onto the floor unconscious. The moss-haired swordsman then turned around to look at his captain. "Is this your idea of fun?! You get caught by a bird and got carried away, and now when we finally find you, you're in a cage?!" Zoro yelled with an absolute bewildered look on his face.

Several of the pirates began to sweat at staring at the angry swordsman. "The pirate hunter, Zoro?! Why is he talking with a thief?!"

Nami stared at the exchange with a puzzled look. "The crew member that guy was talking about…was the pirate hunter, Zoro?! I don't understand…" She whispered.

Natsu picked up her whispers and grinned at her. "Hehe I'd be confused too if I were in your shoes too. Most things that revolve around Luffy tend to be…a little wonky." Natsu chuckled awkwardly.

Buggy had been staring at the green-haired swordsman for quite some time now. "You're definitely Zoro alright. The swords…the bandana…that hair…it all fits." Buggy crossed his arms. "Are you aiming for my head?" He asked,

Zoro closed his eyes and shook his head. "No, I've no interest in that anymore. I'm no longer a pirate hunter because I quit."

Buggy grinned and juggled the knives in his fingers with a glare towards the swordsman. "But I have some interest, if I kill you, my name will become more famous throughout the high seas."

Zoro reached for one of his swords. "If you don't wanna die, then I suggest you just leave me alone."

The Buggy crew then began to spur their captain into his plan to murder the past pirate hunter. "OOOOH! Kill him, captain! Send Zoro off!"

Buggy grinned at his crew's bloodthirstiness. "My crew has spoken! Today is the day you die, Zoro! If you don't show you're true skills now, you'll soon be covered in blood!" Buggu screamed, charging with his knives in tow.

Zoro quickly unsheathed his weapons and prepared to kill the clown pirate. "Fine, if that's what you want!" He didn't want to kill the fool, but if he was too stupid to see when he is unmatched, then he'd be doing him a favor in the long run. Zoro swiftly spun himself to slice Buggy's torso in half as well as his right leg and arm, causing the pirate to scream in pain as he was cut in pieces.

Natsu, Luffy and Nami watched in shock as they saw the clown pirate fall to the ground piece by piece. "Huh!? That guy's so weak!?" Luffy yelled.

Nami watched in horror as she watched Zoro cut Buggy into pieces. "Oh my god!"

Natsu just stared with a shocked look as he was Buggy fall to the ground…but without any blood being spilt? _'What the hell?'_ Natsu thought to himself. His ears then picked up mild chuckles coming from Buggy's own crew. What kind of sick crew would laugh at seeing their own captain be sliced into bits? Unless…

Zoro glared down at the fallen clown pirate and almost felt sorry for the fool. "…He died really easily." He muttered to himself. The swordsman then glanced towards the chuckles coming from the Buggy pirates.

"Hey, Zoro, Natsu! Hurry and get me outta this thing!" Luffy screamed, attracting the attention of both Natsu and Zoro.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay just hold your horses." He said, walking over to the cage.

Nami stared in shock as she continued watching the Buggy crew laugh at their captain's demise. _'What's going on with these pirates? Their leader's dead, but now they're laughing?!'_

Zoro looked around the iron cage as he felt the cage for any weaknesses. "This thing won't open without a key. These iron bars won't slice." Zoro told his captain.

Natsu ignited his palm with a flame. "I could melt the iron bars."

Luffy nodded boisterously. "Yeah yeah! That's a good idea!"

Natsu nodded and told Luffy to stand back from the bars. As soon as he began to touch the flame to the bars, he heard the Buggy pirates laugh even louder. Zoro growled in anger at hearing them, "What is so damn funny?! Either give us the key or shut up! I really don't want to have to fight you idiots!" He screamed at them.

As the bars started to melt, Natsu finally began to remember something key about Buggy the pirate. His eyes widened as he realized, _'Devil Fruit!'_ "He has a devil fruit!: Natsu yelled to Zoro, but it was too late.

 _ **STAB!**_

A lone gloved hand inserted the knife it was carrying right into Zoro's lower abdomen. Zoro grunted in pain as he felt the sharp steel stab into his soft flesh and kneeled onto the floor. "ZORO!" Natsu and Luffy yelled as they saw their friend get stabbed.

"What? That hand!" Nami yelled in surprise.

"Kahahahaha!" Buggy's crew laughed as they saw the absolute shock on their faces.

Zoro quickly slapped the floating hand away from him and grunted as he felt the knife exit his wound. "Damn it! What the hell is with this hand!?" Zoro yelled, turning his body to get a better look at the hand that stabbed him. "The hand…the hand is floating in the air!" Zoro screamed, holding his throbbing wound in pain.

"The Section Section Fruit…" A voice murmured behind Zoro. His eyed widened as he saw the hand float upwards behind him and turned around to see…Buggy fully intact?! "That's the name of the Devil Fruit that I ate! No matter how you try to slice me up, you can't because I'm a sectioned man!" Buggy yelled.

"…He stuck his body back together! I thought the Devil's Fruit was just a myth!" Nami shouted, her eyes widened in utter shock.

"A sectioned man? That guy's the monster!" Luffy screamed.

"Says the Gummy man!" Natsu muttered.

"I'm a rubber man!" Luffy yelled back at him.

"Whatever…" Natsu mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Buggy grinned as he saw the pain on Zoro's face. "I see I've missed your vital body parts, Roronoa Zoro! But it's still a serious injury. So I call that an O-kay victory!" Buggy yelled in triumphant.

Zoro kneeled as he grabbed his bleeding wound. _'I actually knew that guy had eaten some kind of Devil's Fruit…I was careless! He's winning for sure now. I came to save Luffy, but look at me now!'_

Nami gritted her teeth as she stared Buggy tower over the kneeling swordsman. _'This s dangerous! The situation is completely reversed now! I can't just stand here like an idiot! Those three, and obviously also me, will be killed!'_

Luffy stared angrily at the Buggy. "Stabbing from the back is dirty! You big nose!" Luffy yelled at the clown pirate.

All of Buggy's crew stood flabbergasted as they heard the word's come out of the straw hat kid's mouth. Buggy gritted his teeth in rage as he heard the insult. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING, BIG NOSE?!" Buggy screamed, throwing his right arm towards Luffy.

"Luffy!" Zoro yelled as he saw the sharp knife in the hand speeding towards his captain.

The flying hand went soaring towards Luffy until it was suddenly caught in mid-air. Buggy grunted in anger as he saw that the hand didn't meet its mark and tried to wiggle out of the grip that held it. Nami stared shocked as she saw who had caught the hand in flight before it hit the straw hat boy. Natsu's hair covered his eyes as he furiously gripped Buggy's hand tightly, eliciting a yelp of pain from the clown. "Sorry…but I can't allow you to hurt this idiot. Because he has a point…" Natsu muttered, his eyes uncovering from his hair. "…Stabbing from behind is a dirty move!" Natsu shouted, squeezing Buggy's hand with all his might.

"AGH! Let go of my hand, you bastard!" Buggy screamed, his eyes bulging from the pain he was feeling.

"Hehehe good job, Natsu. Let's take this dirty clown down!" Luffy grinned.

"Puhahahahahaha! You're gonna take me down?! You're hilarious! You four are gonna di-" Buggy suddenly yelped in pain again as he felt the grip intensify on his trapped arm. "Damn it! At least let me finish my speech!" Buggy screamed at the salmon-haired pirate.

"Oi, both of you, follow my lead and we'll get out of this alive…and maybe a bit richer too if we play our cards right." Natsu muttered to Nami and Zoro.

Beli marks suddenly burst from Nami's eyes as she heard the mention about money. "Make us richer and I'll follow you anywhere!" Nami whispered to the hunk. Even if he was maybe a handsome pirate, she could just ditch these three with the loot in all the chaos. She quickly shook her head. Handsome?! What the heck was she thinking at a time like this?

Zoro grinned as he heard Natsu. "Heh. Do what you gotta do then." Zoro mumbled, holding his wound tightly so he could keep as much blood in as possible. He made a mental note to ask Luffy if they could look for a doctor soon for their crew. Natsu signaled Zoro to look at him and moved his eyes to the large cannon next to them. Zoro looked at it and got the message. "Ok." Zoro said, grinning. The dragon slayer then signaled Nami to the cannon as well and she gave him a weird look as to what exactly he wanted her to do. He continued moving his eyes from her to the cannon in the hopes that she got the message.

' _Oh damn it! Pirates are definitely hard to understand. That's something I hate about them!'_ Nami screamed internally as she slammed her hands to her head.

"Enough of this! None of you are getting out of this alive to tell the tale! **Section Section Cannon!** " Buggy yelled, shooting his other hand towards the salmon-haired pirate. Zoro quickly got in front of him and used his left sword to deflect the incoming knife-wielding hand. The hand quickly got up from its deflection and began to chase Zoro. "Kahahaha! Zoro's running away! You think you can escape the Great Captain Buggy!?" The clown pirate screamed.

Zoro continued sprinting as fast as his legs could take him and leaned his whole body against the cannon in an effort to push it towards Buggy and his crew. "Ya see! That's what I meant!" Natsu screamed at Nami., using one hand to grip Buggy's arm and the other to melt the iron bars.

"Well why didn't you just say it then instead of having me decipher it from your weird looks!" Nami yelled back at him.

"Hey, could you just stop fighting or somethin'?" Luffy asked with half-lidded eyes.

"SHUT UP, IDIOT!" They both yelled at the straw hat kid.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP! Hey, lady, help me out with this damn thing, will ya?! I'm currently bleeding out here!" Zoro yelled at the two, getting Nami out of their bickering and sprint over to Zoro. She then leaned against the cannon along with Zoro; their combined strengths being used to push the cannon over to aim at the Buggy pirates. They both exerted their muscles in an effort to push the cannon and finally moved the cannon to aim at Buggy and his crew.

The Buggy pirates screamed in fear as they saw the cannon pointed in their direction. Buggy's eyes widened as he remembered just what was in that cannon, "AAAAAHCK! That thing still has a 'Buggy Special Cannonball' in it!" He yelled in fright.

"Waaah! Good job, guys!" Luffy yelled with joy.

Zoro then turned to Nami. "Oi, I need a light! Hurry!"

"Y-yes! Ok!" Nami meekly said, her eyes looking to the box of matches that had dropped to the floor and quickly grabbed it. She rapidly took out a match from the box and lit it against the cannon to light it up.

"W-WAIT!" Buggy yelled, but it was too late.

The fuse was lit and the Buggy cannonball quickly fired out of the cannon and demolished all that was in its path.

Zoro breathed heavily as he saw that they their plan had went off without a hitch and turned to look at the orange-haired woman. "This is a good time to go…who're you anyways?" HE asked her.

"I…I'm a thief." She uttered.

Luffy beamed. "That kid is our navigator!"

Nami quickly turned towards the boy still stuck in the cage. "You really are an idiot, aren't you! You're still on about that?!" Nami screamed at Luffy, breathing out a huff when she was finished.

Zoro looked to see Natsu still working on the metal bars. "You almost done there? I've seen your flames burn hotter than that."

"Well I would be done, but I'm freaking starving right now! Plus I'm really tired too!" Natsu said with a yawn.

Zoro's eye twitched as heard that and looked down to his bloodied wound. "I'm standing here bleeding out and you have the gall to say that?!" Zoro screamed at him.

Natsu shrugged. "We've all got our weaknesses, pal. Being hungry just so happens to be mine."

"I thought it was moving around a lot on a boat?" Luffy asked.

"…meh. That's my main weakness I guess. This just happens to be…a minor one I guess." Natus said with another shrug.

Nami stared at the three of them bicker and slammed her palm against her face. "I was wrong…you're all idiots."

"Hey, at least I'm a devilishly handsome idiot, right?" Natsu chuckled.

"W-well, y-I mean an idiot is an idiot! No matter how c-damn it!" Nami yelled, shutting her mouth with her two hands.

Natsu hoorayed in his mind at that small victory and ignited his flames even hotter; melting the bars off finally. Luffy then hopped out and Natsu broke off the ropes with ease. The straw hat captain hopped in glee as he was finally freed. "WOOHOO! I'm free again! Hahaha go us!" Luffy screamed.

"I thought you said you're flames were too weak? How the heck did you're flames get so strong all of a sudden?" Zoro asked.

"Simple. My flames react to my emotional state. When I'm in a heat of emotion, then my flames burn brighter. Like say for my current emotional state thanks to our new navigator's opinion of me." Natsu said with a chuckle and a wink.

Nami blushed and cursed those damn hormones that had begun to spring forth. "A-Anyways, what do we do now?" Nami asked.

Suddenly, the smoke began to clear from where the cannon had fired at; revealing a bruised Buggy. "DAMN IT! I'm not gonna let you four escape from me!" He yelled with fury evident on his face.

Natsu motioned for them to escape before Buggy saw them. As the smoke finally cleared, Buggy howled in anger as he saw that the four has escaped. Luckily, the salmon-haired bastard had dropped his arm, but gritted his teeth as he lost a chance to track the four down. _'Bastard is smarter than he looks.'_ Buggy then turned to his men, "I want all of you to scour this damn town! This whole damn island if you have to! I don't care how long it takes!" Buggy screamed to his men. Unbeknownst to the crew, the four had merely escaped to a nearby building to hideout until the coast was clear. "Now I definitely know those idiots aren't common thieves! I now declare war and withstand every fight to catch them!" Buggy yelled at the top of his lungs.

"AYE, CAPTAIN!" His crew screamed.

"I can't hear you!" Buggy yelled back at them.

"AYE, CAPTAIN!" Buggy shouted at them to repeat themselves.

"AYE, C-" They began to shout but were interrupted by their captain.

"SHUT UP!" Buggy yelled at them, eliciting a quiet affirmation from his crew. "We have to teach those people just how scary it is to make a whole pirate crew their enemy!" Buggy shouted to his men. "Oh-kay! Let the show begin!"

Suddenly, a large beast came stomping towards Buggy with a man with an odd hairstyle akin to a teddy bear. "Did you call me, Captain Buggy?" The man asked, his beast emitting a low growl.

"It's the vice-captain Mohji's beast show!" A member of Buggy's crew shouted.

Mohji stared directly at his captain when he asked, "May I have the honor of taking Roronoa Zoro's head?"

Buggy grinned with malicious glee. "Do whatever you want."

Panting was heard in the middle of town from a moss-haired swordsman as he stumbled for the third time. Natsu turned back to look at Zoro, "Dude, if you need some help, then just ask. We'll gladly carry you."

Zoro shook his head. "I don't need any help. I'm fine on my own…" Zoro mumbled as he collapsed to the floor.

Nami jumped as she fell to the floor. "I-is he…"

Natsu ran to him and turned him over onto his back. "No, he's still breathing. Idiot is losing blood fast and he still shook off our help."

Luffy shrugged. "Zoro's strong. Maybe he thought that he could outlast the pain."

"Well that was stupid of him. No one can just walk away from a knife wound without some kind of injury." Nami muttered, not noticing a sheepishly chuckling Luffy look at Natsu.

"Ugh…this is it. I don't have any more blood left. I can't walk anymore." Zoro whispered.

"No, Zoro! Don't die yet! I just got you on my crew!" Luffy shouted, kicking Zoro on his shin to get him up.

Nami quickly punched Luffy on the head for his idiotic action. "IDIOT! Don't kick a man while he's bleeding to death!"

"ARF!" A voice barked.

"Thank you, Natsu!" Nami smiled, until she noticed that Natsu didn't bark and looked at a dog with an oddly determined look on its face next to Zoro.

"Eh? What's with this dog?" Zoro asked.

"Dog? Oh hey, it is a dog." Luffy said.

Natsu facepalmed at Luffy's stupidity. _'There is no way his son can possibly be this stupid. I didn't think this kind of stupidity actually existed, but here it is right in front of me…'_ Natsu thought to himself as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Hey, look Zoro, the dog isn't moving at all. Why isn't it moving?" Luffy asked the swordsman.

"Whatever…" Zoro grumbled. "What it does is up to the dog. Right now, we have to think of a way off of this island." The swordsman grunted.

Luffy tilted his head as he looked at the dog. "Hmm…I wonder if it's dead." Luffy asked himself as he poked the dog right in its eyes, eliciting an angry growl and a bite straight to Luffy's face. "YOU STUPID DOG, WHAT THE HELL D'YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Luffy shouted as he began to wrestle with the dog on the floor.

"YOU IDIOT, DO YOU EVEN KNOW THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE SITUATION HERE?!" Zoro screamed with a furious look on his face.

Natsu continued watching with a depressed face and pinched himself to see if he really was dreaming. "Nope…I'm awake. I'm just in the nightmare that is my life" Natsu sighed.

Nami shook her head disapprovingly as she watched the straw hat boy and the swordsman argue until they both collapsed onto their backs exhausted. "You two, what on Earth are you guys doing…if you just lie around here in the middle of the street, then Buggy will definitely find you!"

Luffy turned his head to look at the navigator upside-down. "Hey, our navigator is right!"

"SAYS WHO?!" Nami screamed at him. "I'm just here to repay my debt to you three because you all saved my life back there." Nami told the three.

"And because you have nowhere else to go to save yourself from Buggy's wrath so you figure you'd just stick with the only strong people who could stand up to him…" Natsu mumbled to himself, eliciting an embarrassing blush from Nami.

"W-well I also figured that hey, why not help my odds of surviving on this island. Besides, you promised me treasure and damn it, you promised a beautiful lady like me so you better keep your end of the bargain." Nami said with a smirk, pointing her index finger straight into Natsu's face.

Natsu smiled and nodded. "You're right, I did promise treasure and I always keep my promises. Especially, to beautiful women!" Natsu said with a chuckle and a wink.

"Oi, why is her face so red all the time?" Luffy whispered to Zoro, pointing out the fluorescent reddish hue on top of Nami's cheeks.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Suddenly, their conversations were interrupted by a loud shout. "Oi, you people! Stay away from Shushu!" An elderly man screamed at the four.

Luffy tilted his head in confusion. "Shushu? What's a shushu?"

Zoro widened his eyes in surprise at seeing another person on this island. "Who're you, mister?" Zoro asked the elderly man with glasses and a poor excuse for armor.

"I'm the village's leader, Boodle, or in other words, the chief!" Boodle replied.

 _ **An hour later**_

"How's Zoro?" Luffy asked.

"I let him sleep at my house since it's just next door." Boodle replied. "Even though I told him that there's a doctor at the shelter." He muttered.

"Hehe yeah, that's Zoro for ya!" Luffy chuckled to himself.

Natsu shook his head in bemusement at hearing the swordsman's stubbornness. His head then turned to look to the small dog still standing guard in front of the pet food store. "So, is this dog's name Shushu?" Natsu asked the chief., receiving a nod from the elderly man. Natsu raised his eyebrow, "Well what is he doing here?"

Boodle looked at the small dog with a look of respect and placed a bowl of food down in front of him, causing the dog to shoot for the bowl and gobble up the food inside it. "He's guarding this store. I just came to give him some food…the owner of this place is my friend, and ten years ago he opened this store with Shushu. The precious store is filled with cherished memories for the two." Boodle told the three. He kneeled down to inspect the dog for any injuries, "Look at these wounds. They're definitely from fighting with those pirates and protecting this store."

"But then, no matter how precious it is, what kind of thing is making a dog guard a store with pirates as the enemy. The store owner is with the other people at the shelter, right?" Nami asked, shocked as to how this small animal could protect something as large as this pet food store by itself.

Boodle sighed, lighting his pipe. "No…that guy…he's already gone to the next world because of a sickness." He muttered, noticing the dog suddenly stop eating. "Three months ago he was hospitalized and then…well you can figure out the rest for yourself."

Nami suddenly lowered her brow in sadness as she heard the dog's sad tale. "Then…could it be that the dog's continuing, just waiting for his owner to return?

The old chief chuckled at the young woman's words and blew some smoke out of his mouth. "That's what everyone says…but I see it in a different way. Since Shushu's an intelligent dog, he knows that his owner's already passed away." Boodle said.

Nami raised an eyebrow at that. "Then why still guard the store?"

"Maybe because the dog loves his owner so much that even though he knows he's dead, he's willing to risk his life for something that his owner loved so much." Natsu said with a smile. "Hehe I can respect that."

"Woof!" Shushu replied.

"Haha that's correct. This store is a treasure to Shushu. He loved his owner more than life itself…and now that he's gone Shushu will fight to his last breath to protect the last piece of his owner that still resides in this world." Boodle chuckled, blowing some more smoke from his mouth. "It's an endurable thing. I tried to take him into the shelter a few times, but he won't take a step away from this place…if I left him here, I think that he'd stay until he starved to death."

Natsu kneeled down to pet the dog on its head. "Hehe you're a tough little guy, huh? Fighting to your last to protect something your nakama loved so much…you remind me a bit of me. Well…if I was a dog of course hahaha!" Natsu laughed to himself, causing Shushu to bark a couple times; as if it was imitating the laughter coming from the salmon-haired man.

"Shishishishi I like this dog! He's got some spirit in 'im!" Luffy yelled, beaming a smile at the dog.

Nami smiled down at the scene and wondered if maybe these pirates weren't as bad as she initially thought. Unfortunately, a sudden roar interrupted the scene causing everyone to jump in surprise. "W-What is that roaring noise?!" Nami yelled.

Boodle began sweating bullets as he recognized that particular roar. "T-That is that guy! The beast trainer, Mohji! Run away!" He shouted in fright, hightailing it out of there with Nami right behind him.

Natsu and Luffy stood there along with Shushu watching as they saw a large beast approach with a man on top of it. "You should probably hightail it outta here too unless you wanna get hurt, Shu." Natsu muttered to the dog, receiving a growl either from its new nickname or a simple no. "Hehe…I didn't think so."

The large beast suddenly stopped in front of the three and growled as it glared at them. Shushu also began to growl as it saw the beast was trespassing on its territory. "Well, I found two of them. I'm Buggy's pirate crew member, the beast trainer Mohji!" He yelled down at the three.

"GRRRRRRRRR!" Mohji's beast snarled loudly as it stared down at the small humans and small canine.

Mohji chuckled as he saw the old man and young woman flee from him. "Hohoho…so the people you were with just ditched you? Poor things, and you tried so hard to run away." Mohji chuckled. "Captain Buggy is pretty mad. You guys have committed a pretty serious crime." Mohji said to Luffy and Natsu. The three had yet to respond…poor things must be shaking in their boots…

Luffy tilted his head looking at Mohji. "Heck are you supposed to be? Wearing a weird fur cap like that is plain weird."

"Nah I think that's just his hair, Luffy. Man, did you just see a stuffed teddy bear and say, 'Man that sure looks like a swell haircut! I bet the ladies will just love this on me!' …well, buddy, it really doesn't." Natsu said with a smirk.

"WHAT! YOU IDIOTS, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING! THIS HAPPENS TO BE THE HAIR I WAS BORN WITH!" Mohji screamed at them, pointing to his hair.

"That just makes it even weirder" Luffy simply stated.

"Yeah, really freaking weird." Natsu agreed.

"SHUDDUP!" Mohji yelled, a bulging vein spreading across his forehead. "Y-You bastards…you really don't know how scary I am."

Nami and Boodle peeked out from behind a house as they watched what was going on. "Those guys…they want to die, don't they…" Nami whispered.

"Those fools…" Boodle said through gritted teeth.

Mohji huffed as he stared down at the small dog and smirked. Perhaps it was time to give a demonstration of his power. "I'm telling you, there is no animal in this world that won't obey me! That includes that dog over there." Mohji said, pointing at the dog. Mohji stuck out his hand to the dog in an effort to shake the dog's paw. "Shake a paw…"

 _ **BITE!**_

"AAAAAHCK!" Mohji screamed as the dog jumped up and bit his hand. As the dog jumped back down in front of the pet food store, Mohji turned back to look at the two. "You're both just nameless common thieves." Mohji said with a stare.

"You gave up on a dog?" Luffy asked.

"Damn, you suck!" Natsu shouted.

Mohji glared down at the two, "I have no reason not to kill you. Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is."

Luffy gritted his teeth as he stared back at Mohji and his beast. "I don't want to!"

Natsu merely shrugged. "Pass!"

"KILL THEM, RICHIE!" Mohji shouted, causing the beast to charge straight at the two ferociously.

"Oh no!" Nami shouted.

"Those two are gonna die!" Boodle yelled in fear.

As Richie charged straight towards them, Luffy quickly sidestepped it as Natsu jumped in the air to avoid it. Unfortunately, Richie swung its paw too fast for Luffy to be able to dodge it; sending him crashing into a nearby house. "That was instantaneous! He talked back to me and that's what he gets. A swift death! Ok Richie, let's go-" Mohji was then interrupted by a loud whistle coming from behind them. He turned around to see the salmon-haired pirate also on top of Richie smirking at them.

"Yeah…I'm still here ya know." Natsu said, jumping back down to land in front of the pet food store.

"Move it or my beast Richie will devour you along with that dog. My poor Richie has been starving for quite some time now and all he wants is just a little bit of food. So…either move or die. Your choice." Mohji muttered with an eerie look on his face.

Natsu stared back at him with a smile on his face and looked down to see Shushu growling angrily at the two. He chuckled and moved his foot to draw a line in front of himself and Shushu. "See that?" Natsu asked the beast tamer.

"Hmph…I see a line. So what? Is that supposed to mean something?" Mohji asked.

Natsu pointed at the line. "This is symbolism. You wanna know what it symbolizes? It symbolizes something that you are sure as hell not getting past. While I may be more of a cat person myself, I like this dog here and what he stands for. And there is no way in hell that I'm letting some asshole with a teddy bear haircut steal anything that belongs to him!" Natsu yelled, glaring angrily towards the two, killing intent emanating from his very being.

A bead of sweat poured down Mohji's forehead as he stared at the salmon-haired pirate. Hrgh…what was wrong with him? Why was he so afraid of this guy? There was no way that he was stronger than him…He was Mohji! Mohji the beast tamer! Vice-captain to the Buggy pirates! And there was no way that he was going to be intimidated by the likes of him! "RICHIE, K-"

A sudden flame slammed into Richie's shoulder; causing Richie to yelp in pain as it felt its skin burn. "R-Richie!" Mohji yelled as he saw his friend being burned from the flame. Luckily the flame stopped burning after a while, but it left seared flesh where it burned the massive beast. "H-How did you do that?! Did you eat a Devil Fruit like captain Buggy!?" Mohji yelled at Natsu.

"Tch…if I had a Beli for every time I'd been asked that. No I have not eaten a Devil Fruit and I never will. I like swimming far too much to give it up." Natsu chuckled, his eyes being shadowed by his hair.

Mohji gritted his teeth as he stared angrily at the salmon-haired bastard that burned his friend. "Do you honestly think this'll stop us?! Richie and I have been through far more harrowing battles and you are no different from any of the foes we've faced!" Mohji yelled, continuing to rant and rave at the salmon-haired pirate; unbeknownst to him, the straw hat captain was still alive and kicking and was making his way towards the ranting Mohji.

Natsu yawned as he tuned out the raving of the teddy bear pirate and watched boringly as he continued to rave angrily at him. The dragon slayer sighed as he realized that Mohji had no intention of stopping and would no doubt take his anger out on both the dog and his treasure. Yeah…there was no fucking way that was happening. Natsu cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck out until he heard a crick telling him that the deed was done. "Ok, boy, you're gonna want to stand back a couple of feet because things are about to get….FIRED UP!" Natsu yelled, making sure Shushu backed away into the pet food store before letting rip. Fire began gathering into his mouth as he stretched his neck back, " **FIRE DRAGON'S…** " and finally shot his head forward towards the beast tamer and his beast, " **ROAR!** " Flames flowed out of Natsu's mouth as they charged straight for Mohji and Richie, engulfing them in the fiery heat and flames.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Mohji yelled as fire burned his skin. But the pain wasn't done yet…

Two long arms suddenly stretched far and wide and grabbed Richie's head, causing Mohji to fall off of his friend. The arms then twisted, spinning the beast up in the air, " **Gum-Gum…"**

"W-wait, you should be dead!" Mohji yelled in shock.

"You can't kill me that easily! I'm a rubber man!" Luffy shouted, pulling the large beast towards the ground. " **…HAMMER!** " Richie then collided onto the ground, his head lodged straight through the earth.

"RICHIE!" Mohji yelled. He then turned towards the straw hat boy with fear latent in his face. "You…" and then turned towards the salmon-haired pirate. "…and you. What the hell are both of you?!"

Luffy kneeled down in front of the large beast and breathed out a large huff. "A long time ago I ate the Gum-Gum fruit!"

"The Gum-Gum fruit?! Could it be that you…have gained abilities from eating a Devil's Fruit just like Captain Buggy?!" Mohji yelled out. His eyes slowly moved towards the grinning salmon-haired pirate, flames now surrounding him like an aura of malevolence. "And…w-what are you?" He asked, trembling like a leaf.

Natsu smirked. "Me….I'm a devil!" He grinned; the flames surrounding his forehead suddenly took the shape of two devil horns.

Mohji jumped back in fright and began to beg for forgiveness. "O-Okay! I'll give you everything that you want! A-And I'll also apologize for everything! Sorry!"

Natsu grinned and turned back to call Shushu back. "You hear that, Shu! The mean old teddy bear man is sorry for trespassing on your territory and PROMISES not to ever try to steal your treasure, RIGHT?" Natsu growled back at Mohji.

"R-Right! I-I swear never to steal your treasure or any other treasure again. J-Just please don't hurt me!" Mohji begged.

Shushu ran back outside to see that the giant lion was defeated along with the ugly teddy bear man and woofed at Natsu and Luffy in thanks for helping him protect his treasure. "Shishishishi no problem!"

Nami and Boodle began walking back after seeing that both Richie and Mohji had been defeated. "Y-you two actually did it! You beat them both!" Nami said in shock.

Natsu looked at her with squinted eyes and raised his eyebrows at her. "Eh? You really thought we'd lose to the likes of these wimps? Please, I'd never let myself live it down if my journey stopped here in the East Blue."

"Yeah, same here! The Pirate King has to see the whole world and nothing is gonna stand in my way!" Luffy shouted to the heavens, stretching his arms far and wide with a big smile on his face.

' _These younglings…truly are incredible.'_ Boodle thought to himself with a slight smile.

Natsu turned to Mohji with a hard glare. "Oi! Take your ugly lion with you and get the hell out of here before I send you there myself!" Natsu growled at the teddy bear pirate; causing him to whimper in fear and begin dragging his large lion back to Buggy to tell him the bad news. Natsu breathed out a sigh of relief and took a seat next to Shushu and lay on his back with a smile on his face. "Ahhh….that'll do, dog…that'll do." Natsu breathed out, ruffling the fur on top of Shu's head.

"Woof!" Shushu said before walking back inside to rest up before any more pirates came to invade his home.

Luffy chuckled as he watched the dog go. "Hehe you stay strong too!"

Nami smiled as she saw how these two pirates acted…they were leagues above how the average pirate acted. But…they were still pirates. So she had to stay vigilant…but still. They seemed like a nice bunch of…idiots. But still nice though. Maybe she should apologize for doing what she did to him…like locking him up in a cage.

Luffy sat down on the ground and stared at the sky with a blank stare. He always like to look at the different clouds up in the sky…he still remembered seeing who could spot the weirdest looking cloud with Ace and Sabo. He suddenly heard footsteps walking towards him and saw that it was his navigator walking to him. Nami raised her hand, "Hey, sorry for…well tricking you into a trap. It wasn't very nice of me to do that and…I'm really sorry for doing that."

Luffy stared at her for a few moments and smiled at her and got up. "It's okay. You lost someone important to you because of pirates. You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

"You don't need to say anything…but thanks." Nami said with a small smile.

Boodle gritted his teeth as thought to himself that it was his duty to protect this town and all who lived in it. "OOOOOOO! I can't stand it anymore!" He shouted. "It's just so miserable, so miserable! Shushu and you youngsters fighting like this! But why is it that I, the village chief, can only watch our village being trampled!"

Nami put up her hand to stop the chief's yelling. "Wait, Chief, calm down!" Nami said, trying to calm the chief.

"To a real man, there are some fights that can't be avoided! Isn't that right, you two?!" Boodle yelled to Natsu and Luffy.

"Hehe of course!" Natsu replied with a grin.

Luffy beamed at the old man. "That's right, Mister!"

Nami quickly shouted at the two. "Don't encourage him!"

Afterwards the chief went onto to tell the three about how his last village was destroyed and how only 40 years ago he and the villagers built the village that they were currently standing in. He then proclaimed that he was going to stand up and fight against the pirates, but as soon as he was finished though, a cannonball destroyed the chief's house and sent them all falling to the ground.

Luffy quickly shot up to see that the chief's house was completely destroyed. "Aahhhh! Zoro was sleeping in there!"

Natsu smelt a familiar smell coming from the debris and smiled. "Yeah, I think he's good."

The chief instantly turned to him. "What are you talking about?! My house was completely destroyed so how could he still be alive!?"

"Hey, Zoro are you still alive?!" Luffy shouted.

A figure was then seen slowly getting up from inside the smoke after hearing Luffy's call. "Yeah…that was some bad way to wake me up." Zoro mumbled, rubbing his eyes to in an effort to wake himself up more.

Natsu turned to the gaping chief and grinned. "Told ya!"

Luffy beamed as he saw that Zoro was still intact. "What a relief! You're alive!"

Nami just stood there shell-shocked at what she had just seen. "…And just how is it that you survived?"

The chief suddenly grabbed his chest plate in anger as he watched Zoro. "Damn it! It feels as though my chest is being scraped out! Do you think I'll allow pirates to trample all over us again?! I am the chief of this village and I won't let this village be treated this way!" Boodle shouted with rage.

Before Boodle could run off, Nami quickly grabbed ahold of his shirt to try to bring him back before he got himself killed. "W-wait a minute, Chief! Those people are dangerous! So what's the point in going!? This is too reckless!"

"I KNOW IT'S RECKLESS" Boodle shouted with tears in his eyes, getting the attention of all four of them. He then got out of Nami's grip and ran off to face Buggy and his crew.

Nami continued to stare at the chief as he continued getting smaller and smaller. "The chief…was crying…"

Luffy grinned as he turned away to look at Zoro. "Hehe was he? I didn't see anything."

Natsu chuckled as he looked at the two other pirates. "You know, this little village has got some kick to it don't you think?"

Zoro smiled as he looked to Luffy and Natsu. "Heh for some reason this is starting to feel more fun."

Luffy beamed as he looked at his friends. "Hehehehehe I agree!"

Nami just watched flabbergasted as she saw the three take this so normally. "How can you still laugh at a time like this!?" Nami shouted angrily.

Luffy continued grinning as he said, "Don't worry! I like that old man! I'm not going to let him die!"

"How can you all take this situation so calmly?! Where the hell does all your confidence come from?!" Nami asked, confused as to how exactly these pirates were so damn confident.

"Hehe simple! I do what I want, when I want and nobody can tell me otherwise!" Natus said with a grin.

"Nothing will stand in the way of my ambition! Anyone or thing that does…won't stand a chance against me!" Zoro sneered.

"Our destination is the Grand Line! Now we're going to go steal that map again!" Luffy shouted, raising his hand to Nami. "Will you join us? You need the map too, don't you? And the treasure…"

Nami stared at his hand angrily and breathed out a huff of air. "I'm not going to become a pirate." She said, smacking Luffy's hand with hers. "Rather than 'partners', let's just say that we're 'cooperating.' Helping each other to achieve our goals!"

Natsu clapped his hands happily at what he saw. "Great! Now that we're all friends…or a mix of friends and mutual acquaintances, let's go save the chief before he gets himself killed!" Natsu said with a yell.

Zoro smirked and got up. Nami noticed him getting up and called him out on it, "You're going too? What about your stomach injury?!"

Zoro shrugged as he unfurled the bandana from his arm. "It's all healed."

"Yeah right!" Nami shouted at him.

Zoro grinned as he tied the black bandana to his head. "More importantly than an injury done to my body, is the injury my name suffers because all I did in my last fight was get hurt. So should we go!?"

Luffy grinned. "Yeah, let's go."

Natsu chuckled in bemusement as he began to walk over to the two before he was pulled back by Nami. "Oh no you don't!" Nami said with a small glare.

"Awww that's cute. You want me to protect you!" Natsu said with a chuckle.

Nami blushed slightly as she slapped his shoulder. "NO! I just remember that you promised me treasure and I'm not letting you out of my sight until you get me some!" Nami said back to him.

Natsu rubbed his shoulder in faux pain as he smiled back at her. "No problem…I don't want you outta my sight either!" Natsu replied with a wink.

Nami blushed and quickly turned her head away with a grumble. Zoro rolled his eyes at what he was hearing behind him. "Enough with the flirting already! For God's sakes, we're about to go into battle right now!" Zoro yelled back at them.

Natsu gave him a faux salute. "Aye aye, Captain!"

Luffy turned angrily at Natsu. "HEY! I'm the captain!"

"It was a joke, Luffy…" Natsu sighed.

Luffy turned around with a small pout. "I'm still the captain though…"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes you are…ya big baby." He whispered, eliciting a small chuckle from Nami and a ghost of a smile from Zoro.

The four then began to hasten their walk as they came across the center of the town. They immediately saw the old man standing in front of where Buggy and all of his crew were at. Luffy grunted as he saw that Boodle was being choked by one of Buggy's sectioned hands and sped over to grab ahold of it before it choked the life out of the old chief. "AGH! This feeling….Straw Hat!" Buggy screamed as he saw Luffy in front of the old man, holding Buggy's sectioned hand with a grin.

"I've kept my promise…I've come to take you down, you dirty clown!" Luffy screamed.

"So you come without a trace of fear on you…YOU MORONS! You're all so dead!" Buggy screamed at Luffy, Natsu, Zoro, and Nami as they backed the old man.

Nami quickly turned to face Zoro and Natsu. "Listen, I don't care whether you fight or not, you guys do as you wish. I'm just here for the map and the treasure!"

"Yeah, we know." Zoro grunted.

Natsu patted Nami on the back with a smile. "Don't worry, I've got your back Nami!"

The old chief kneeled as he stared at the ground in pain. "You three…what did you come back for? You three just stay out of this. This is my war!" He shouted, grabbing ahold of his spear. "I'm the one who must protect this village! Don't interfere!" Boodle yelled, until Luffy grabbed ahold of the back of his head and slammed him into a wall.

Everyone watched with shock as they saw this brutal move against the old chief and watched as he collapsed to the floor unconscious. "You…you idiot! What the hell was that for?! Why did you do that to the chief!?" Nami shouted at Luffy, honestly confused as to why he would harm the very man he came here to save.

Luffy turned to stare back at Buggy with a grin. " 'Cause he would just get in the way!"

Zoro stared back at his captain. "That was smart thinking…if you left him alone, without a doubt, he would've charged recklessly. It's safer for him to be unconscious."

"Still though…there are easier ways to knock someone out with giving them a freakin' concussion in the process." Natsu sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Don't do anything unnecessary!" Nami yelled at Luffy.

"Hey you huge, red, ugly…BIG NOSE!" Luffy shouted at Buggy, eliciting shocked faces coming from Buggy and his crew as well as Zoro and Nami.

"Ah damn it Luffy! You know that's his big red button…I mean c'mon, it's right there on his ugly mug of a face!" Nastsu shouted at Luffy, eliciting another group of shocked looks from both Buggy's crew and Luffy's.

Buggy gritted his teeth as he heard the insults coming from those damn bastard's mouths. "Grrr….FIRE THE BUGGY SPECIAL CANNONBALL! FIRE FIRE!"

"Do you want to get yourselves killed? You idiots!" Nami shouted as she sprinted away from the firing cannonball.

"Oi, Luffy! Dodge it!" Zoro shouted at him.

Natsu just merely moved one step to the side to get away from the cannonball.

"Do you think just because of a cannonball…I'll move a single inch?" Luffy grinned. The cannonball continued speeding towards the straw hat captain. Luffy then inhaled a deep breath, " **Gum-Gum** …" and close his mouth to keep from any hair from escaping, " **BALLOON**!" The cannonball then collided with Luffy's now ginormous belly and merely bounced it back towards the Buggy crew.

"HE BOUNCED IT BACK!?" They all shouted as they saw the special Buggy ball come flying back towards them.

"Could've said something earlier…" Zoro grumbled to himself, facepalming slightly.

The building that the Buggy crew were occupying then exploded when the cannonball collided with the building, causing debris to fly everywhere as a result of the explosion.

"Yay! Their number had decreased! Shall we start now?" Luffy said with a grin.

"What the hell are you!?" Nami screamed at Luffy. "Explain yourself! I don't understand this at all! From the moment you fought with the lion and came back alive! This isn't humanely possible! How the hell did you just swell up like a balloon?!"

"Easy. Gum-Gum Balloon!" Luffy simply said.

"I'm not asking you for the name!" Nami shouted back at him.

"Hahaha!" A voice laughed. They suddenly turned to look at the fallen debris where the cannonball had fired and saw many fallen Buggy pirates unconscious in all the rubble. "You're chatting around making a lotta noise, like you're not scared." He said, holding up several crew members as a shield.

"He…he used their crew as shields!" Nami said surprised.

"That's another dirty trick." Natsu angrily growled.

Buggy emerged from all the rubble along with another of his crew who had his hair parted to block the left side of his face, a scar wrapped around his neck, a long coat and a strangely enough was riding a unicycle. Buggy dropped the unconscious crew members on the ground and stared at the ground angrily. "This is the biggest humiliation we've ever received under our flag, Captain!" Cabaji said.

"I'm so mad, words fail me…" Buggy muttered.

"Damn it…I was unconscious. W-What is this mess?" Mohji mumbled as he rose from the debris.

"Mohji…you're still alive?" Cabaji asked, surprised that the weakened man had survived the large blast.

Mohji raised his head to see that Cabaji was holding an unconscious Richie up like a shield. "Cabaji! What the heck did you do to Richie?!" Mohji asked angrily.

"Ah this kitten?" Cabaji said, dropping Richie to the ground. "I was afraid my clothes would get dirty, so I just used him as a shield."

Mohji quickly ran over to his unconscious lion friend and started shaking him. "Richie! Hey, are you ok!?" He asked, hoping that his friend would respond to his pleas. Luckily, Richie suddenly began coughing showing that he was indeed still alive. Mohji breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Cabaji with an angry glare, "You bastard!" He began walking over to him until he saw just who exactly was in front of them. "EHCK! The kid in the straw hat! And the devil! Captain Buggy, be careful of those two! The kid with the straw hat has also gained from the powers of the Devil's Fruit and the pink-haired one…he's just a plain monster! He can control flames like a devil"

Nami turned to look at Luffy. "Devil Fruit?!"

"Yup, wanna see?" Luffy said, stretching his face apart. "I'm a rubber man!"

"Gummy man!" Natsu yelled.

"RUBBER MAN!" Luffy yelled back at him.

Nami then turned to look at Natsu. "And you, how do you control flames?!"

Natsu shrugged. "Trade secret." He then turned to glare at Mohji, "AND I DON'T HAVE PINK HAIR! IT'S SALMON! You better hope I don't get ahold of you and you're freakin' lion again!" Natsu shouted at them, causing both Richie and Mohji to shirk back in fear.

Buggy eyes shadowed over as he glared at the floor. "But Mohji…if you knew that already…" He then turned around to glare at Mohji, "Why the heck didn't you tell me earlier!" Buggy screamed as he shot one of his sectioned hands at Mohji, causing him to fly towards the straw hats.

"Get out of the way!" Mohji yelled.

"You get out of the way!" Luffy shouted back, stretching his leg back and colliding with Mohji's face. Nami quickly hopped over the teddy bear pirate that started skidding towards her and Luffy grinned as he turned back to Buggy. "The fight has begun!" He yelled at Buggy.

Cabaji then began using his unicycle to drive himself over to the straw hat kid in the hopes of catching him off guard. "I'll avenge the pain you've caused my crew! He shouted, readying his sword to stab the straw hat kid. Zoro then slid in front of Luffy to block the incoming sword before it slit his captain's throat open.

"If it's swords, then I'm all for it." Zoro grunted.

"It's an honor, Roronoa Zoro. As a swordsman, I get to slay you." Cabaji said with a sneer.

Luffy then noticed Zoro's throbbing wound through his bandaging and sought to stop Zoro before he hurt himself any further. "Look, Zoro. I think it's better if I do it. You go take a rest."

Zoro turned to look at his captain to answer and Cabaji used this as an opportunity to strike. " **Acrobatic technique, 'Fire Trick!'** " Fire spewed out from Cabaji's mouth as it landed on Zoro's face, causing Zoro to scream in pain. Zoro quickly tried to jump back, but was stopped by Cabaji's kick straight onto his throbbing wound.

"Aaaaack!" Zoro screamed as he collapsed onto his back, clutching his wound.

"Eh what's this? I didn't even kick you that hard, did I?" Cabaji sneered.

Nami grit her teeth in frustration as she saw that Cabaji had the upper hand in this fight. "You dirty bastard! Aiming to the wounded area!"

Cabaji ignored her and stabbed his word into the ground. " **Acrobatic** **Technique…** " He then spun his sword rapidly in a circular fashion to create dust. " **Murder Mist Trick!** "

Zoro huffed as he raised his body to sit up. "Some trick…it's just a cloud of dust!" Cabaji then used the cloud of dust to strike at Zoro, but Zoro quickly raised his sword to deflect the oncoming sword strike. Cabaji sneered as he once again raised his foot to strike at Zoro's wound again and kicked roughly away from him, eliciting another cry of pain from the moss-haired swordsman.

"That bastard did it again!" Nami shouted angrily.

"Hahaha what's wrong? A grown man rolling around, crying out loud is absolutely pathetic to watch!" Cabaji smirked as he looked down on Zoro clutching his wound. Because of your both of your partner's odd powers, we've suddenly gone to pieces. Even though you're a 'pirate hunter', making the Buggy pirate fleet your enemy was a big mistake." Cabaji muttered to Zoro, still spinning on his unicycle.

Zoro gasped as he tried to raise himself as Nami continued to watch angrily at the sight. "Fighting with that injury was already too much from the start!" She screamed, turning to glare at both Natsu and Luffy who were merely watching with blank stares at what was happening. "What's wrong with you two?! Why are you watching all silent and stone-faced!? That guy's gonna die!"

Natsu merely raised a finger and pointed it back to the fight at hand, causing Nami to continue to watch.

Cabaji began driving back to deliver the final blow against the green-haired swordsman. "Roronoa Zoro! Go to the next world!" He yelled, raising his blade to swing down onto the gasping swordsman. Suddenly though, Zoro shot up from the ground and swatted Cabaji away from him with one of his swords.

"Eh?!" Nami shrieked, confused as to how exactly Zoro could stand up from the repeated hits to his wound.

"See? I knew it right when I met him, he's the type of person who won't die, no matter what, until he reaches his dream and fulfills his greatest ambition." Natsu said with a grin, causing Namit to glance at him and turn back to look at the fight.

Zoro huffed a few times tiredly. "What an annoying guy! Yap yap yap…do you find tearing up my wound that much fun or just talking my ear off?" He murmured as he glared at the unicycle swordsman. Zoro then sliced his wound with his own sword, eliciting gasps from and looks of plain shock at what he did.

"What!? He cut himself?!" Cabaji yelled, shocked as to why exactly Zoro would do such a thing. Had he gone mad?!

"Whoa, man! We get it, you're tough, but cutting yourself is just plain freakin' crazy!" Natsu shouted at the moss-haired swordsman.

"Heh…shut up. My goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman…" Zoro huffed.

"What the hell?!" Cabaji asked in shock.

Zoro sneered back at him and grabbed his other sword to place it in his mouth. "Is my condition now satisfying enough for you? Lemme teach you the difference in levels between us." Zoro mumbled through his swords as he readied himself for his attack.

"Waaaaaah! So cool!" Luffy's eyes lit up as he continued watching Zoro fight.

"Wow…that guy is freakin' badass!" Natsu shouted, grinning wildly as he watched Zoro get ready for the second round. _'Although…how does he talk so clearly even with a sword in his mouth?'_

Cabaji grinned as he stared back at Zoro. "Roronoa Zoro…you impudent fool!"

"Aah! Just looking at him makes me feel like he's gonna collapse any second." Nami muttered.

"Bet you 100 Beli's he doesn't." Natsu muttered to her, not taking his eyes off the two swordsman.

"Well of course I don't want him to lose!' Nami whispered vehemently at him, also not taking her eyes of the two swordsman.

"…is that a no then?" Natsu asked, holding out his hand.

"…you're on." Nami whispered, shaking Natsu's hand.

"You have soft hands…" Natsu said with a smile.

Nami quickly grabbed her hand away from him and blushed embarrassingly at his comment. "S-Shut up…"

"Wooooooooo! Go Zoro!" Luffy shouted, completely oblivious as to what was going on between the two next to him.

"To anyone that calls himself a swordsman…I won't allow myself to lose even once to him!" Zoro told the unicycle swordsman with a determined look.

"Oho you got a strong determination there, but don't worry. Fighting me with such a serious injury, you can use that as an excuse when I defeat you." Cabaji sneered.

Zoro then pointed his two swords in his hands towards the ground as his eyes began to shadow over. "Nonsense! With this sort of injury, if I lose to the likes of you, my future carries an obvious fate!"

Cabaji huffed. "You asshole…"

Natsu and Luffy then turned around, feeling a tap on their shoulders. "Hey, behind the destroyed pub there's a warehouse. Their treasure is there and the Grand Line treasure map is probably with Buggy. Since the pirates are still unconscious, I'll use the moment to slip over there, and after I acquire the warehouse's treasure, I'll make my escape. Since whether you win the fight or not, has nothing to do with me! But if you actually manage to fulfill your part and get the map…let's 'cooperate' again when that happens!" Nami said with a smile.

"Then I'll head there with you! After all I did promise you treasure and as a man, I must keep my word!" Natsu said.

"Umm…no that's ok. I can handle myself." Nami said, hoping that neither one of them would follow her.

"Nonsense! I'm coming you and that's final!" Natsu chuckled with a smile and walked off towards the warehouse.

Nami sighed as she could tell that he wasn't going to take no for an answer and just decided to go along with it for now. "Then off we go. Good luck on the fight! Nami said as he she ran off to the arehouse.

"Okay thanks!" Luffy said back to her.

Meanwhile, Cabaji had taken out three spinning tops as he began riding his unicycle towards Zoro. "Take a taste of the best trick I have!" He then opened his coat to reveal what looked like hundreds of spinning tops shooting at Zoro. " **Acrobatic Technique: 'One Hundred Tops Typhoon'**!"

Zoro glared at the spinning tops and got ready to deflect all of them. Cabaji then used that as a distraction to spin towards one of the walls of a building. " **Acrobatic Technique: 'Wall Riding'**!" He yelled as his unicycle began riding up one of the side of the building. Zoro then began deflecting each and every top that came his way before they had a chance to strike him. He then raised his head when he heard Cabaji scream, " **Acrobatic Technique: 'Midsummer Fire Crackers Ignition'**!"

"Waaaaaah, that's high!" Luffy shouted as he saw how high the unicycle swordsman was now.

Cabaji aimed his sword downwards as he was no directly above Zoro. "Direct Stab!" He shouted as he plummeted straight down towards Zoro.

Zoro then began to ready himself for the incoming attack until he was distracted by Buggy's scream, " **Ground Runner 'Section-Section Cannon'**!" Buggy's hand then shot away from his arm and sped towards Zoro in an attempt to assist Cabaji in defeating the green-haired swordsman. "I'll grab him in place, so you finish him off!" Buggy screamed.

"Yes, Captain!" Cabaji sneered.

"That bastard!" Zoro grunted as he saw the incoming hand speed towards him. Suddenly, Luffy slammed his foot right on top of Buggy's hand, squashing it into the ground. Buggy shouted in pain as he felt the straw hat kid's foot squash his hand. "Luffy!" Zoro yelled.

"Don't interfere with Zoro's fight!" Luffy shouted at Buggy.

Zoro grinned as he saw his captain assisting him and readied himself for the impending strike from above. "Even without the captain's help finishing you off will be a piece of cake" Cabaju screamed from above.

Zoro then quickly thudded to the ground before Cabaji could strike at him. The green-haired swordsman gasped for air as his wound continued to throb. "Stop now…I'm tired." Zoro said.

"You're tired? Hahahaah are you getting anemia? You've finally given up. Well I suppose it was obvious! I mean, it's a substantial effort you make just to stay standing." Cabaji laughed, until suddenly Zoro shot up and slammed his foot onto the wheel of the acrobat's unicycle; causing Cabaji to fall off of it.

"I meant I'm tired of being the opponent of someone who has such pitiful skills!" Zoro saidn, glaring angrily at the acrobat.

"Then let me finish you off now! With my real sword skills!" Cabaji yelled, running towards Zoro.

Zoro then crossed his arms over his chest and pointed the two swords in his hands upwards. " **Oni…GIRI!** " Zoro shouted as his blades sliced into Cabaji's chest, causing him to teeter back and forth.

"Damni it….the world's best pirate defeated by the hands of a common thief! So shameful…" Cabaji muttered as he collapsed onto his back unconscious.

Zoro breathed out a heavy sigh as he took of his bandana. "Not a thief…but a pirate!" He mumbled as he also collapsed onto the floor. "L-Luffy…I'm gonna sleep."

"Yeah, you sleep. Now I'll finish this off." Luffy said with a grin.

"You mean you guys…are pirates!?" Buggy exclaimed.

"Yeah! Hand over the Grand Line map!" Luffy shouted at Buggy.

"So that was your goal…that place isn't exactly somewhere nameless pirates like yourself can go as you please. So what are you planning to do there! Go have a sightseeing tour!?" Buggy yelled.

"I'm gonna become the Pirate King." Luffy replied.

Buggy almost fell over in shock at his answer. "Don't kid around, you fool! You become Pirate King!? Then I'm a god! The person who'll get his hands on all the treasure in the world will be me! Don't even dream about it!" Buggy shouted in anger,

"Skip the lecture and let's start! You're being too loud, you idiot!" Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

"Watch your mouth, boy! Seeing your straw hat reminds me of a guy I knew a long time ago. The impudent red-haired guy…" Buggy grumbled.

"Red-haired?!" Luffy exclaimed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Natsu and Nami were traversing through the warehouse and currently stuffing sacks with gold. Beli signs were plastered on Nami's eyes as she continued mumbling to herself at how lucky she was. Natsu on the other hand was just staring at her awkwardly while simultaneously stuffing the same sack full of gold. "You uhh…really like money, huh?" Natsu chuckled. Nami merely nodded while taking great pleasure in stuffing the sack full of gold. "Is there any particular reason why you're so interested in money so much?" He asked.

Nami suddenly stopped stuffing the sack full of Beli and stared at all the money that was in front of her. When did she first start to see money as one of the most important things in her life? Was it when she was merely an orphan? Or was it when she lost everything and everyone she cared for because of…him. She glared down at all the money. She was so close…just a little more money and she would be able to free herself along with her village. The thief suddenly continued stuffing more and more gold into her sack after the awkward pause she left in the air. "Money is power. Plain and simple." She mumbled, staring hard at the gold in front of her.

Natsu had been staring at her when she suddenly paused herself from her stuffing and noticed the slight movements in her face; anger, sadness, and then determination. Something was obviously driving her to do all this, but what? "H-Hey, listen, I know it's none of my business, but-" He suddenly was cut off by Nami slamming the sack full of gold on the ground and tying it tightly closed.

"You're right, it is none of your business. Let's keep it that way." She said, refusing to so much as look at him and heaved the sack over her shoulder and began walking towards the exit. Natsu sighed as he watched her leave and hoped that something would force her to ask for help in the future. No one could survive in this world alone…

Suddenly a huge roar of anger rang in their ears. "SHANKS IS A GREAT MAN!" Luffy yelled, almost shattering both Natsu's and Nami's eardrums in the process.

"Oh damn it…this is one of those times when I hate having enhanced senses." Natsu mumbled, following Nami out the exit.

"Guess Luffy is fighting Buggy now, isn't he?" Nami questioned.

Natsu opened his mouth to respond, but he heard another roar. "HOW DARE YOU MESS UP Y HAT! I WON'T FORGIVE ANYONE WHO MESSES WITH MY TREAURE!" Luffy roared at Buggy, anger clearly evident on his face.

Nami slowly peeked out behind one of the buildings and saw how angry Luffy was. _'I thought this guy was someone who'd never get agitated at anything, but he's so pissed off right now!'_

"I guess everyone has their breaking point." Natsu muttered, peeking as well.

Nami looked up to him. "How can just a hat mean so much to him?"

Natsu smiled slightly and touched the black and white scarf on top of his head. "It's not the item that's important…but the memories attached to it that are so precious."

Nami glanced at Natsu as he said this and looked back to how angry Luffy was. _'I suppose if anyone messed with Bellmere's oranges…then I would be furious too.'_

Buggy smirked as he glared at Luffy. "Is the hat that precious to you?"

"Yeah, you bastard!" Luffy roared, ignorant to the fact that one of Buggy's sectioned hands was rising behind him and getting ready to strike.

Natsu's eyes widened as he saw the incoming attack. "LUFFY, BEHIND YOU!"

Luffy heard his friend's scream and looked behind him to see Buggy's sectioned hand throw a knife at him and quickly moved out of the way to dodge it. He gripped his straw hat tightly as he moved to stumble out of the way. Buggy quickly then moved his hand to strike the straw hat that was so near and dear to the boy. "If it's that precious to you, then why don't you protect it properly!" He yelled, stabbing the straw hat with the three knifes in his sectioned hand. Luffy gasped as he saw the hat Shanks left him to treasure and keep safe being damaged…

' _This hat…is my gift to you'_

Luffy fell to the floor and gripped the ground tightly with unbridled rage. Buggy began to laugh in triumph as he attached his sectioned hand back to his arm and waved the damaged straw hat triumphantly. "Kuhahahahahahahaha! What sort of treasure is this rag-like-hat!?" He cackled.

' _This is my favorite hat, you know. When you become a great pirate in the future…'_

Luffy gritted his teeth in fury and sprinted towards Buggy with his fists gripped tightly.

'… _you'll return that hat to me.'_

"THAT'S THE HAT I SWORE MYSELF TO SHANKS!" Luffy roared.

"Pshh I see that now. Me and that guy used to be in the same pirate ship." Buggy growled, throwing the straw hat to the floor. "To rephrase that…" He suddenly spat on the straw hat with contempt. "…he was my comrade when we were still pirate trainees."

Luffy gritted his teeth angrily as he gripped his left arm with his right hand. "Don't you make fun of Shanks!"

" **Section-Section Emergency Escape!** " Buggy yelled, popping his head off with a smile. Unfortunately for him, Luffy wasn't aiming for that particular part of him. Luffy's arm lodlged itself straight into Buggy's stomach, causing Buggy to scream in pain as he felt the straw hat boy's arm go deeper into his stomach. Buggy then fell over on to his back with a grunt.

"Damn you! How dare you treat my treasure like that!" Luffy growled, jumping on top of Buggy and began punching him in the face repeatedly. "You even spat on it! Your friend's own hat!"

"AGH! Stop it! Stop!" Buggy screamed.

Luffy pulled him up to glare at him. "Shanks being your comrade…don't you dare insult him ever again!" He growled, stretching Buggy's face.

"Hrgh…even though I don't know what sort of relationship you had with Shanks! It's my own choice how I can speak of him!" Buggy yelled, trying to desperately to section himself again with his powers until Luffy threw him back on the ground with a chop to his face.

"Ayaaa Luffy is really angry right now…" Nami said, a bit startled at seeing this normally calm boy so riled up.

Natsu nodded. "Like I said, everyone has a breaking your point."

Luffy then got off of Buggy and stared as he saw him slowly got back on his feet. "Throughout my whole life, even until today, there has not been a single who has made me madder than he did!" Buggy snarled. "That bastard…he…HE TOOK A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF TREAURE FROM ME! I can't forgive him!" He shouted, remembering the incident that caused him to become a Devil Fruit user in the first place. "Because of that damn man, I…ate a hundred million Beli worth fruit…and I became unable to swim! And I missed the treasure lying on the seabed! So that's why I promised myself! If I can't get anything under the sea, then I'd settle for every treasure above it!" Buggy shouted, separating his upper body from his lower half and floated into the air. His eyes glanced downwards to see Nami and Natsu with sackfulls of…his treasure?! "Hrgh! Because of that, whoever touches my treasure…" He suddenly shot his upper half towards the two thieves.

"Uh oh!" Natsu shouted, pushing Nami behind him.

"LEAVE THEM ALIVE!" Buggy shouted, crossing his arms across his chest ready to strike. Luffy glared as he saw Buggy trying to attack his friends and quickly glanced back at buggy's defenseless lower half. "I'm going to give you two a si-" Buggy suddenly stopped as he felt tremendous pain coming from…his crotch! "KUUCHK!" He whimpered.

Nami widened her eyes as she saw that Luffy's leg lodged itself onto Buggy's crotch area and looked to see Buggy collapse to the floor in pain. Natsu slapped his forehead with his hand and threw his head back laughing at what he saw. "Hahahahahaha! Oh my gosh, yeah Luffy!"

Luffy chuckled as he saw his friend laughing. "Oi, Buggy! Your opponent is still me!"

Nami breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm alive…" She then looked up to see herself behind Natsu. Everything was happening so fast that she couldn't move…but he saved her. He moved her behind him without a second thought for his own safety…

Her thoughts were then interrupted as he heard Luffy yell at her, "Oi! Out that treasure down and go somewhere safer! You're going to get chased again otherwise!"

Nami held the sack of treasure tight to her chest after hearing his words. "Put the treasure down and go?! I don't want to! Why should I leave my treasure behind?!"

"Y-Your treasure!?" Buggy growled.

"Of course! Since I'm a pirate-treasure thief and I just stole from a pirate, I'm telling you this treasure is mine!" Nami yelled defiantly.

Luffy stared at her for a few moments and nodded. "Ah…I see."

Natsu shrugged. "Seems legit."

"What nonsense! That treasure's mine! Do you think that if you steal it, it's yours!? How the hell were you brought up?!" Buggy screamed.

Nami's eyes shadowed over as she remembered how she was…brought up. "Tch…a lecture from a bad guy? Stop that nonsense!"

"What?!" Buggy asked angrily.

Nami moved her eyes to look at Buggy and stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't think I've done anything bad enough to be lectured by a pirate!"

"Wow…you're really fired up right now!" Natsu beamed at her, causing her to nod back at him.

Buggy glared at both of them. "You're prepared for this, aren't you, Nami! **Se…ction…Sec…tion FESTIVAL!** " Buggy screamed, causing numerous pieces of his body to cut off from him. "Kuhahahaha see if you can protect your friends now!"

"Damn it! There should really be a limit to this damn fruit!" Luffy growled, looking down to see Buggy's feet walking away from him. "Hmm? The feet can't fly away?"

Buggy charged at Nami with his head and two hands. "Give me back my treasure!"

"I won't!" Nami yelled, shielding the treasure with her body and waited for the inevitable strike.

Natsu quickly moved in front of Nami again slammed his fist into Buggy's face, causing Buggy's face to swerve onto the ground. His floating hands then moved to cut him to pieces, but he pushed Nami out of the way and dodged the incoming slices. Natsu then ducked to the floor and inhaled deeply, " **Fire Dragon's Roar!** " Fire spewed out of his mouth and engulfed Buggy's hands in the flames, effectively burning him and caused his hands to quickly scurry away.

"D-Damn you!" Buggy screamed until he turned his head to Luffy as he felt his foot get captured.

"Gotcha! Your foot!" Luffy said as he tackled the foot to the ground. He then took off the shoe covering it and began tickling it furiously, causing Buggy to scream in laughter. The straw hat captain then proceeded to pinch the side of Buggy's foot, eliciting a grunt of pain from the clown pirate.

"Stop it already, you idiot!" Buggy yelled.

Natsu was grinning as he saw the unconventional way Luffy was handling Buggy until he saw Nami grab ahold of the sac tightly and swing it around towards Buggy. "The one that's got tp stop…" She pulled the sack with all her strength and aimed it towards Buggy, catching him from behind. "IS YOU!" She yelled, slamming the sack right into his face. Nami then noticed a grin on Buggy's face as he used his two sectioned hands to grab ahold of the sack.

"The treasure has been returned!" The clown pirate grinned.

"Let go!" Nami yelled, pulling the sack of gold towards her.

"Let go? The one who should let go is you!" Buggy screamed at her, pulling the sack towards him.

Luffy then began sprinting towards the clown pirate. "I told you that your opponent…" Buggy turned around to look at the straw hat captain. "IS ME!" Luffy shouted as he kicked Buggy straight in the face, ripping the sack of treasure and shooting Buggy into the debris. "Hehe bullseye! That last kick…was for the village chief!"

Nami glanced at him in surprise as she saw a hand suddenly be placed in front of her. She looked up to see a smiling Natsu looking down at her. "Need a hand?" He asked.

Nami lightly blushed and slowly took his hand in hers as he pulled her up. "T-Thank you. Both of you. Thanks to you, I'm alive."

"Hmmm…don't worry about it!" Luffy smiled.

"No problem! If I'm able to save a beautiful navigator/thief anytime, then I'll surely take it! Haha I especially like it when you slammed the sack right in his face too. That was amazing!" Natsu beamed, eliciting a darker blush from Nami.

"Shishishi yeah! That was super cool!" Luffy agreed.

"Hehe…thanks." Nami sheepishly chuckled.

Luffy then turned to the beaten up Buggy. "Oh yeah! The map."

Nami also turned to the beaten up Buggy and saw all her beloved treasure splattered all over the floor. "Aah! My treasure got scattered everywhere!"

Luffy then quickly ran over and snatched the map from Buggy's pocket and began walking away. "Alright! I've finally got it. The Grand Line map!"

Suddenly a rustle was heard behind him and a voice called to him. "Wait! Wait, Gum-Gum kid!" Buggy called to him as his head rose up.

"Eh you're still alive?" Luffy asked as he turned his head to look at him.

"I'll kill you once and for all! Gather up, Section-Section parts!" Buggy yelled, causing only his hands and feet to come to him. "EH?!" He screamed, turning his head when he saw a whistle calling to him.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking for these, would you?" Nami smiled as she stepped on the tied up pieces of his body.

"Yikes! My body!" Buggy yelled.

"Hahahahahaha! A thief definitely has some cool skills! Leave the rest to me!" Luffy shouted, sttecthing his arms backwards as far as they could go. "Get lost, Buggy! **Gum-Gum…** "

"W-WAIT!" Buggy shouted.

Luffy's arms then shot forwards, colliding with Buggy and sent him flying through air. " **BAZOOKA!** " After he saw Buggy soar through the sky, he pumped his fists in victory. "Victory!" He shouted in triumph. Luffy then turned to look at Nami who was standing next to Natsu. "Now you're gonna become my crew member, right?" He asked her.

"I'll say okay for now, since it seems that if I go along with you guys, I'll be able to earn a lot, but I'm just cooperating with you while it serves my purpose, remember that!" Nami told him. She then began to rub the sack full of treasure to her face with a smile. "Buggy said that he only takes the best treasures for himself, so this bag's contents are of the highest quality! This much treasure should be worth at least 10 million Beli!" Nami then grabbed a second sack and handed it to Natsu to handle. "I've divided it into two bags so you hold the half of it. This treasure is so heavy that carrying it alone is difficult."

Natsu nodded. "Aye aye, Miss Navigator!"

Luffy however was preoccupied now with holding his damaged straw hat. Nami noticed how hard he was fighting to defend it and asked, "That hat…is it that precious to you?"

Luffy smiled and pulled it onto his head. "Yeah, but it's alright. I feel better now that I got rid of Buggy!" He then walked over to Zoro and patted him on the head. "Oi, Zoro, get up! Let's go!"

Zoro grumbled as he slowly rose himself off of the ground to sit. "Hmm? Did you finish the fight?"

"Yeah, we also got the map and the treasure too!" Luffy smiled.

"…Aah I don't think I can walk yet." Zoro mumbled as he rubbed his forehead.

"Obviously! If you guys can still walk, then you aren't human…" Nami muttered.

"Why did you include me?" Luffy asked.

"You're the weirdest!" Nami shouted.

"Oooo ooo am I the coolest or the cutest hmm?" Natsu grinned, elbowing Nami lightly.

Nami lightly blushed and muttered something to herself.

"Hmm? What was that?" Natsu grinned.

"S-Shut up! That's what I said!" Nami yelled, turning her back to him in the hopes that he didn't see her blush.

He did…

"Oh yeah, I'll wake up the chief!" Luffy said, glancing at the unconscious chief.

"Oi, you four!" A voice called out to them from behind. The four of them turned around to see a mob of people standing together. "We're the people of this village. Did the pirates stir up a fight amongst themselves? If you know anything please tell us…"

"Oh so you're the villagers. I think some of the pirate crew are still here. If you want us to tell you then, there isn't anything much left to tell you…" Nami said, scratching her head.

"Ahh! Chief!" One of the villagers shouted, seeing the unconscious chief lying on the ground. All the villagers then crowded around the old man as they checked to see if he was still breathing. "Damn it! What the hell happened here!?" Another of the villagers shouted.

"Ah, sorry. I sorta did that to the chief!" Luffy said.

"WHAT!?" The villagers responded with death glares pointed straight at them.

"Hey! Why did you tell them that kinda thing on purpose!" Nami shouted at him.

"You saw me do it, right?" Luffy asked her.

"I know, but still! That was because of a good reason!" She yelled back at him.

Natsu just pinched the bridge of his nose as he listened to the two of them argue. _'Oh Natsu…what did you get yourself into?'_

"Who the hell are you?! Could you be pirates!?"One of the villagers shouted at them.

' _Well, at least we didn't mention we are pirates of thieves. That would be instant death!'_ Nami thought to herself.

"We are pirates!" Luffy said to the angry villagers.

"So you are!" The villagers angrily yelled, pointing their weapons at them.

"Hahahaha!" Zoro began to laugh at his captain's brashness.

Natsu just threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"IDIOT!" Nami screamed at Luffy.

"But it's the truth!" Luffy said to her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Get them!" The villagers screamed, sprinting towards the four.

"Let's run away!" Luffy shouted, grabbing ahold of Zoro and running away.

"No really, Luffy! And here I thought we were probably just stay and let the villagers stab us with their pointy objects!" Natsu shouted at him.

"You think we should?" Luffy asked him.

Natsu just replied by facepalming.

"Oh why the hell did you make the situation more complicated!" Nami yelled at Luffy.

"Hehe this is a good village!" Luffy replied with a grin.

"What?" Nami asked.

"For their chief, for just one person…they're all getting mad!" Luffy replied. "Shishishi no matter what excuse we give, they'll still be mad at us!" He said, turning into the alley.

"They're running through an alley!" A villager shouted. As they were beginning to turn the corner, Shushu stepped in front of them and began barking. "Hey, Shushu! Move out of the way, quickly! Those guys are bad pirates!"

"Aah that dog!" Luffy said in surprise.

"Hehe now that's a cool dog!" Natsu said with a grin.

After sprinting their hearts out, the four had finally made it to the docking area where two ships were docked. "Hua…I was getting pretty worried. Thanks to Shushu we barely got away! Qhy doe it always end up this way?" Nami asked herself.

"Who cares what they think! We did what we came here to do!" Luffy grinned.

"Well, it's not quite like that though…" Natsu muttered. _'The only reason we came here was because you got eaten by a bird.'_

"Is this your boat? It's cool! I totally envy you!" Luffy said with a smile.

"I don't think so. I stole it from a bunch of stupid pirates." Nami said with a sweatdrop.

Natsu nodded. "Ah yeah…and hell there they are!" He yelled, pointing at the three pirates standing in her stolen ship.

"AHA! We have been waiting for you, thief!" They both shouted at Nami.

"You…you are.." Nami stuttered.

"Haha we knew you'd come here if we stayed here!" One of them said with a grin.

"You know them?" Luffy asked her.

"Well, sort of…" Nami muttered.

"So you have a gang now…I guess we-" The pirate stopped himself short when he saw the pink-haired pirate that beat on them not to long ago. "AHH! He's part of your gang?!"

"Heya!" Natsu waved t them.

"AHHH!" The three yelled, cowering back on the ship that was stolen from them. "P-please don't hurt us!" One of them whimpered. "Y-yeah! If we knew you were in her crew, then we would've just let her steal the ship." Another stuttered out.

"Good!" Natsu said and pointed a finger in the opposite direction. "Then get to leavin'! Otherwise things are gonna get a little fired up again!" He yelled, causing the pirates to yelp and hightail it out of there.

Nami looked at him in amazement as he "persuaded" the pirates to leave without so much as a punch. Natsu turned to her and gave her a wave to her ship. "It's all yours." He winked at her.

Nami quickly nodded and got on the ship before he could see her blush again.

He saw…

As the two parties got on their ship, they both simultaneously set their sails as they began to depart from the harbor. "Hey, the flag has Buggy's mark on it!" Luffy told Nami.

"It was those pirates' boat, so of course it does. I'll erase it later." She replied.

"Wait! I still have tons to say to you!" The old chief yelled as he sprinted towards the docks. "Stop right there, you morons!" Boodle shouted.

"Mister Chief!" Luffy said.

The old chief looked down as tears began to well up in his eyes. "I'm sorry! I owe you!"

The four of them smiled as they heard the kind words coming from the old chief. "Don't worry! Just live happy lives!" Luffy yelled back to him as the two ships began to sail farther from the harbor.

* * *

"WHAT?! You left the treasure behind!?" Nami yelled at the salmon-haired pirate.

"What? Luffy and I had a long discussion about it and we decided to leave the other half because the village got decimated from the battle." Natsu said with a shrug.

"That's my treasure! And I didn't even see you two have a discussion!" Nami shouted at him.

"Sure we did! We made brief eye contact with each other and with that eye contact, we decided to leave half of the money!" Natsu laughed until Nami jumped onto their ship and began punching him on the arm.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Ok, Nami, I'm sorry!" Natsu lightly chuckled as he felt the orange-haired navigator continuously try to hurt him.

"Grrr… I hate you, I hate you!" Nami growled at him.

Luffy and Zoro busted out laughing as they saw the salmon-haired pirate get beaten up as the sea slowly took them farther and farther from the village. "And why are you laughing?! You're next!" Nami shouted at Luffy, grabbing his head and started trying to dunk his head under water.

"Hey stop it! I can't swim! If you want it so bad, then we can go back to go get it back from them!" Luffy shouted.

"How could I do that?! If you two ever do that again, you're dead!" Nami shouted at the two of them. She then pushed herself off of Luffy and leaned against one of the side of their ship. "Ai…you idiots" She chuckled to herself.

"Grrr…you're laughing?" Luffy growled at her.

"Shut up!" She yelled, bonking him on the head.

"It doesn't hurt…" Luffy muttered.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAND THAT'S A WRAP! Wow…this damn chapter took me a long time to write and I'm sorry about that. Writing One Piece fanfics are a handful…oh well! I kinda knew what I was getting into haha! Oh man, but this story is really fun to write. I honestly can't wait until the whole crew is on board and then I'm gonna have so much fun writing those interactions! Especially now that Natsu. Now Natsu's story may kinda diverge from the Straw Hats a bit at times because his existence in this world ties him into other people's existences as well. I won't say who yet though…I kinda want you guys to speculate. I'm sure though that most of you will figure out soon enough though. So, when his story diverges from there, he may miss an arc as he's busy with his own thing, but he'll come back to them. He's having too much fun with them to stay away for too long XD.**

 **Now, like I said in the first author's note, I noticed most of you were not particularly…happy I chose Alvida into the harem and I understand why. She isn't exactly the most…likeable of characters, but I hope to rectify the coldness of her character by having Natsu defrost her cold exterior…get it? Because he's…ah who am I kidding of course you guys get it. Most of the people in his harem are gonna be a bit hard to crack; Nami, Robin, Alvida, Hancock, and certain other women that some of you have requested. Most of the choices you've picked I wholeheartedly agree with! Really, I do! Some of the women you guys picked are women I wanted to include, but was a little hesitant at first, but I'm gonna try my darndest to add them into Natsu's harem as organically as I possibly can! As you can see, he's already cracking Nami's cold exterior! I already have an idea as to how he has already met a certain Marine Petty Officer! Can you guess who? I bet you can!**

 **So if you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a favorite, follow, and a REVIEW! Because they really make my day!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright, I'm finally writing chapter 3 of Demon of the Seas! Finally, right?! I know, I know…but hey, procrastination is a mean mother. Trust me, she doesn't let you do anything you want…or need to do. *Thinks about essay I need to write* Oh boy…plus math homework and my job. Ugh…I need more hours in the day. Ah well, what the heck can ya do? Anyways, time for chapter 3! FYI, I'm skippin' the Uncle Cabbage part of the anime/manga because…well I want this story to get to the good parts faster :P**

 **Disclaimer: In the first chapter.**

' _Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and-hrgh…ugh, sailing sucks.'_ Natsu though as he hung over the side of the small rocking boat he was currently riding in. Turning his vision over to the other passengers, he saw Luffy eating the various foods that weird Uncle Cabbage guy had given the straw hat kid. Zoro on the other hand was slightly dozing off on the corner of the ship with his swords acting as a strange sort of pillow. And Nami…oh sweet, sweet Nami was on her own ship currently staring off into the sky, as if she was thinking intently about a future decision. Natsu's eyes stayed dead on her. The girl was a mysterious person; she never talked about where she came from or anything regarding her personal business. Obviously she liked to keep to herself, but there had to be some reason why she was this way. The salmon-haired boy sighed to himself as he hoped one day that the Beli-loving teen would one day open up to him and he could do whatever he needed to do to help her. Looking back to the straw hat boy merely sitting on the head of the ship, Natsu focused his attention to the "captain" of the Straw Hats. Ever since they had met, and especially after the business with Buggy, the damn teen wouldn't stop asking for him to join him. No matter how many times he declined, the son of a bitch just kept asking. Well…maybe shouldn't call Luffy that. If, _he_ ever heard him say anything like that about the straw hat kid…well, let's just say that Natsu's body wouldn't look the same afterwards.

Shaking his head at that, Natsu turned over onto his back and began slowly breathing to remedy the oncoming seasickness that he was feeling. He then closed his eyes and listened to the calming waves in ord- "HRRRREEEEEEEY, NRATSU!" Luffy shouted, his mouth chock full of food. "SHRO, HRAVE ROU DRCIDED TO JROIN MRY CREW!" He yelled to the groaning salmon-haired pirate.

Natsu slapped his palm to his face in exasperation. "Ai…Luffy, would you stop askin' me every five FREAKIN' MINUTES! I SAID I'D THINK ABOUT IT!" Luffy grumbled at that and walked towards the figurehead of the ship to take a seat. Hearing chuckling, the fire dragon slayer turned his head towards the giggling orange-haired thief. "You know, he's gonna come after you after me. So, I wouldn't be laughing." Natsu grinned, sticking his tongue out.

Nami just gave him a tongue back in return and hopped over onto their ship. "Maybe, maybe, but that's not the biggest problem on this ship." She said, taking a seat next to the dragon slayer on the floor. "If any of you plan on getting to the Grand Line, you're gonna need way more supplies then this." The navigator told him, motioning towards the nearly empty bag of supplies.

Hearing this, Zoro opened his eyes with a smile. "True, there's not a drop of liquor on this ship. How boring!"

"YEAH! We also don't have any meat! My stomach is going to die if I don't have any meat…" Luffy bemoaned, holding his stomach.

"Let's not worry about the problem of food and drink first!" Nami shouted at them. "Don't you idiots know? The Grand Line is the most dangerous place in the world. Every pirate in the world wishes to get the treasure there, and in order to do that, we're going to need a better ship."

Natsu grinned at that particular use of a pronoun. "Oho! Now it's we, huh? And here I thought you didn't like us. Have we begun changing this little beautiful navigator's mind, or is it just my unbelievable charm?" He winked at her.

Blushing, Nami jumped aback at the fire mage's words. "D-Don't be stupid! I-I'm merely looking out for my best interests! If this little ship goes down because of some stupid storm or pirate attack, then I'd be a goner!"

"I'd protect you." The fire wizard smiled.

A heavy blush with steam came out of the navigator's head as she stomped on hard on the boat. "S-Shut up! I don't need you to protect me!" She screamed, hopping off their ship and onto hers.

"Shishishi she likes us!" Luffy grinned, staring off into the distance.

Zoro merely rolled his eyes at that as he closed his eyes once again. "So, so any of you have any idea where we're going?"

After a couple moments of silence, a loud growl was heard from the other ship. "Do neither of you really remember what I said just a couple of hours ago?" Nami asked.

The three looked at each other with blank looks on their faces and replied, "Yes."

"No you don't…" The orange-haired thief grumbled.

"No we don't." The three agreed with a laugh.

' _Idiots…'_ "Ugh, like I told you three before, there is a village due north of us. When we get there, we can get some supplies and maybe a new ship if we're lucky." Nami told the three hoping that this ti-

"Haha she said we again! Told ya she was comin' around!" Natsu laughed, causing Nami to growl and throw piece of wood at the dragon slayer's face. Narrowly avoiding it, Natsu chuckled, "Yup…she's comin' around. Just give me a couple more days and she may just fall in love with me."

"F-Fat chance!" Nami screamed at him, a heavy blush still evident on her face.

"I'll take that bet." The green-haired swordsman grinned.

"Ooooo ooooo me too! Let's bet meat! …Even though, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm gonna win!" Luffy screamed with a smile.

Aaaaaah….the life of a pirate sure was peaceful…

* * *

Just like Nami said, after a couple more hours of drifting through the sea, the four of them had arrived on a small island. Happy to finally be off that rocking death machine, Natsu hopped off the boat and took a deep breath inward. "AAAAH YEAH! Feel that wind…finally I can enjoy this beautiful weather we're having!"

Walking up to him, Nami asked, "Why couldn't you enjoy it on the ship?"

Before he could answer her, Luffy chimed in, "Because Natsu becomes super lame when things start moving."

Natsu turned around and shouted at the straw hat captain. "OI! Shut up! I don't become super lame! I just…get motion sickness…man, that is lame." He grumbled, rubbing his stomach in dismay.

Nami snickered at that piece of information.

"Hey, it's not funny! It's a serious condition!" The fire mage growled at her.

"…A super lame condition." The black-haired boy whispered to Zoro, causing him to snicker.

"I'm gonna kill you, Luffy…" Natsu grumbled, kicking the sand angrily seeing as he actually couldn't do it. Both because it was morally wrong and a certain someone would kill him if he so much as tried. Honestly though…Natsu was torn on whether the former or the latter was stopping him.

Looking upwards, Zoro turned to the orange-haired navigator. "Hey, is there a village here?"

Nodding, Nami unfolded her map. "Uh-huh! Looks like there's a small village on this island."

Zoro nodded back as he heard that. "Thought so. Because I just noticed those guys over there." He said, pointing to four individuals at the top of ridge to the right of them.

"Huh…thought I smelled people." Natsu mumbled.

Suddenly, three of the onlookers ran away in fear. The last one though yelled at the fleeing children for running away. "HEY! DON'T RUN AWAY!" The slim teenager screamed out. Upon closer inspection, the boy had medium-length black woolly hair and a long nose. Along with that he wore an olive green plaid bandanna, a blue and white striped armband on his left arm, along with special sniper goggles, brown overalls with a white sash and no shirt underneath. Gulping to himself silently, the slim teen stood up from his crouching position and ran up to the four pirates. Arriving in front of them, he stood tall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I am the great pirate fleet leader, Usopp, who is in charge of the security of this village! Also known as 'Captain Usopp!'" He screamed at the four pirates. _'Hehe…they must be shaking in their boots! Oh man, I'm so glad I rehearsed this in my bathroom before I left today. Otherwise, my speech probably wouldn't have sounded so intimidating! Just look at them! Utterly speechless! Okay, Usopp…just bring it home!'_ Clearing his throat, Usopp continued, "It's best if you don't try ot attack this village because my 80 million men are not going to forgive you!"

Natsu then turned his head up and sniffed the air. After a couple of sniffs, he whispered into the three other pirates with a grin. Zoro merely huffed and nodded with a grin of his own, while Luffy began shaking his head. Nami then rolled her eyes with a smile, "That's a sucker bet. Nice try." The orange-haired girl then turned to Usopp. "You're lying, right?"

"WHAA! I've been caught!" The olive-skinned teen screamed out, holding his head.

"Haha! Told you! You owe me three pieces of meat, Luffy!" Natsu shouted out, shooting his arms out in victory.

"AHH! Dang it! I really thought they were here…that would have been awesome to see." Luffy grumbled, kicking the sand beneath him.

After a couple of moments to himself, Usopp began freaking out again. "ARGHH! I can't believe I told them that! Bad planning! Bad planning!"

Seeing the weird teen's antics, Luffy busted out laughing with a happy smile. "Wahaha You're so funny!"

Usopp then turned around to yell at the laughing pirate. "Hey! Don't underestimate me!"

"Kinda easy to…" Natsu whispered to the other two with a snicker, causing them to chuckle.

Stomping on the ground, the long nosed teen turned to the pirates again. _'C'mon, Usopp! Get it together! That was just a misstep, but you can come back from this!'_ "I am a man with high self-esteem!"

"No, you're not." Natsu deadpanned.

"No, I'm not a-DAMN IT! B-But, everyone calls me the 'Honorable Usopp!'"

"Something tells me they don't."

"No, they don-AGH! SHUT UP!"

"Make me."

"…OW! Ooooooo ow my stomach just began really hurting me! Ow ow!"

"Yeah…that's what I thought."

* * *

After Usopp began to calm down, the four began to explain their true intentions for being on this island, which caused the long nosed teen to blush in embarrassment and laugh it off saying that he knew that all along…he was a terrible liar. Nonetheless, Usopp, as an act of forgiveness, took the four to a small tavern in the village. The five of them were now currently sitting at a table with numerous amounts of food surrounding them, but Natsu and Luffy were the only ones gorging on the various delicacies on the table. Probably because seeing these two eat was akin to watching predators devour its prey. So…the other three probably lost their appetite because of it.

"So, you're looking for companions and a big ship, huh?" Usopp asked the straw hat captain.

"Yup!" Luffy nodded.

"Oh! Sounds like a big adventure!" Usopp said with a smile on his face.

Swallowing the food in his mouth, Natsu asked, "Yeah. Any idea where we can get that?"

Scratching his chin, the olive-skinned teen nodded. "There's only one place where you can find the stuff you want in this village…although, it's not a very big ship, but it's not small either."

"Where?" Nami asked.

"There's a mansion not far from this village that belongs to a wealthy family. The ship belongs to the mansion's owner. Although, we say that she is the owner…she is a pitiful young girl…a weak and sick girl that always lies on the bed." Usopp said solemnly.

"Eh? Then how come she's the owner of the mansion?" The orange-haired navigator asked.

"I think i-"

"OI! Ma'am! Another plate of meat here!" Luffy shouted.

Zoro raised his glass. "And more sake!"

"And make some of the meat flaming! Like, on fire, ok? No…no don't give me that look, I can eat it. Just trust me!" Natsu shouted towards the cook.

"ARE EITHER OF YOU EVEN LISTENING?!" Usopp shouted at them.

"Buddy, I got two ears. One for listening, and the other for…well also for listening, but right now I only need one for the numerous amounts of exposition you're givin' me, ok? So, if…no no! I said flaming! ON FIRE! Are you people deaf?! I want the piece of meats on f-ugh, excuse me." The fire mage grinned with a wink and ran off to explain to the chef just how he should be properly cooking a piece of meat.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Nami merely sighed. "Just…just continue. I'll explain it to them afterwards. Something tells me I'm going to need to get used to it anyways."

Shaking his head, Usopp continued, "I think it happened around a year ago…that girl's parents died of sickness, leaving her a large inheritance, a mansion, and over ten servants. It was sad really. Her parents were a big part of this community…they meant the world to us…to her." He then leaned back in his chair and blew out a gust of air. "Even if you are really rich, it doesn't exempt you from sorrow."

'… _it doesn't?'_ Nami stared blankly at the olive-skinned teen as she gripped the cloth on top of the table. "Never mind…let's forget about searching for a ship in the village. We'll go and search somewhere else."

"Ah boo! We're leaving already?" Natsu said, sitting back in his chair. "I just taught those chefs how t-ON FIRE! More flames you pansies! Yeah, like that! Throw it! Oh c'mon, I'll catch it! ...JUST THRO-" His hand reached out and caught the flaming chunk of meat. "Mmmmmm now this is meat." He said, biting off a chunk of it. Everyone just stared wide-eyed at the boy eating the fiery meat, as Luffy salivated over it. "No, Luffy, this is mine!" The fire mage growled, pushing back the boy's hands trying to grab the piece.

"…You guys are a peculiar bunch. So, how does he-" Usopp began before Nami cut him off.

"Trade secret." She murmured.

Natsu just winked at the two as he continued fighting off the straw hat captain.

Usopp was a bit saddened at hearing that seeing as how he could have used that in his next tale to tell Kaya. A man who could eat fire was quite the tale…ah well. He still had plenty more lies in his bag. "So, back to the companion thing, you still looking?"

Hearing this, Luffy then stopped reaching for the fire mage's fiery meat and turned to Usopp. "Is there somebody who wants to be our companion?"

Grinning, Usopp pointed his thumb towards himself. "Let me be the captain, and I'll join you!"

The four looked at each other and gave each other a small look and nodded. "Never mind!"

"WHAT KIND OF ATTITUDE IS THAT!?" Usopp screamed at them.

Seconds after Usopp's outburst, the door to the tavern slammed open, which revealed three small children that oddly resembled vegetables. "THE USOPP PIRATE GROUP IS HERE!"

"W-What?" Nami simply asked with a bewildered look.

Natsu just snickered at seeing the determination on their faces. "I have no idea what is going on…but I'm lovin' it."

Ninjin, the one who resembled a carrot, asked, "Where's the captain?"

Piiman, the one who resembled a green pepper, answered, "D-Did you three eat him?!"

Tamanegi, the one who resembled an onion, ran up to the table and saw the empty plates. "AHH! They did eat him!"

Luffy, having not paid the three boys much attention, patted his stomach with a burp. "Yum yum! What a delicious meat!"

The three boys then began to sweat as they all came to the conclusion that their captain truly had been eaten. Nami chuckled at seeing the three boys actually think that the innocent, dumb Luffy had eaten their captain. The fire mage, seeing a prime way to screw with the kids, (call him an asshole, but this was too good of a chance to pass up) whispered to Zoro, "I'll buy ya another round of sake if you…" He whispered the rest into Zoro's ear.

Nodding to the dragon slayer, the green-haired swordsman agreed and placed his palm under his chin and called to three boys. "Your captain…"

"W-What? What did you do!?" The three of them asked with terror stricken on their faces.

"We just…"

"What…WHAT!?"

"ATE HIM."

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! MONSTER! MONSTER!" The three screamed, staring at Nami.

"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?!" Nami shouted at them. She then slammed her hand on the table as she glared at the laughing swordsman and fire wizard. "Why did you tell him to do that!?"

Laughing out loud, Natsu wiped a falling tear from the side of his eye. "Hahahaha…oh man, totally worth it. Oi! Can I get a round of sake, please! You earned it." He pointed to the chuckling swordsman. "Haha…ahhh…oh c'mon don't give me that look." The fire mage said to the glaring navigator. "You were laughing just as hard as us before they pointed you out. If you ask me though…I think you look just as beautiful glaring as you do smiling." He winked at her.

"Hrgh!" Nami grunted, turning her face away to hide her blush.

Natsu smiled at that and caught the thrown sake bottle that was suspiciously aimed right at his head. "Okay! You all just lost a HUGE tip I was going to give ya!" Planting the sake bottle on the table, he moved it over to Zoro.

"You weren't going to tip them anyways, were you?" Zoro asked with a raised eyebrow.

Natsu snickered. "Dick, I don't even have a Beli on me. I can't even pay for that bottle of sake for ya."

"…You're an ass." He grinned, pouring a bit of sake into his cup.

"Says the guy drinking the practically stolen bottle of sake." Natsu grinned back. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he saw Luffy pointing to the now fainted three children on the floor. "Wow…they really fell for it. *sigh* Ok, everybody help them up before they start screaming at the top of their lungs that Luffy's a cannibal."

"Hey, we all ate the meat!" Luffy screamed out, getting the attention of several other patrons.

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND JUST HELP ME!" Natsu screamed back at him. _'Urge to kill this kid…rising.'_

* * *

"Wait, so he said it's that time again?" Tamanegi asked them.

Zoro nodded. "Yup, after her said that, he left the shop."

"Oh! So it was time to go to the mansion." Piiman nodded back.

Nami scrunched her nose at hearing that. "Mansion? The place where the sick girl lives?"

"Yup." Niinjin replied.

"Why does he go there?" Luffy asked them.

"To tell lies!" The carrot-looking kid smiled.

The straw hat kid tilted his head at that. "Isn't that a bad thing to do?"

"That's not bad! Actually, it's great!" The green pepper-looking kid told Luffy.

"Eh? How is telling lies a good thing?" Luffy scratched his head. _'Ace always told me that lying was bad and that I shouldn't do it…was he wrong?'_

"Hey, kid." Natsu called out to Piiman. "How is it good?"

"Well, Usopp always lies to Kaya because he wants to make her happy. She's always cooped up in that mansion of hers and that mean ol' butler of hers, Clahador, never lets her leave. So, our captain always takes time out of his day to go to her room and make up stories about him doing extraordinary things!" Piiman replied with a smile.

Natsu nodded back with a smile of his own. "That's sweet. Seems like the long-nose liar is a man of hidden depths."

"Wow! He's a great guy! Shishishi I knew there was something good about him!" Luffy grinned.

"Hmm…who knew." Nami smiled, a bit happy at the thought of the sick girl at least having some semblance of enjoyment in her life. …Someone had to. The orange-haired thief closed her eyes tightly as she tried to block out the negative thoughts that were plaguing her, which Natsu noticed with a frown. Touching her shoulder, she jerked back a bit and stared at him with a bewildered look on her face. "W-Wha-"

"I just wanted to ask if you we-"

"I'm fine! Ok? Fine. Just…keep your hands to yourself." Nami told him, pushing her seat back and walking to the women's restroom.

The fire mage just sighed as he once again failed to help the orange-haired girl with whatever was plaguing her. "Don't worry." A voice told him. He lifted up his head and saw Luffy looking at him. "She likes us. And as he friends, sooner or later she'll tell us what's bothering her." He smiled at him.

' _Well…looks like Usopp isn't the only one with hidden depths. Maybe he really is…'_ Shaking his head, Natsu grinned at the boy and pushed his hat into his face, causing a cry to utter out from him.

"Jerk..." Luffy mumbled.

"Heh, yeah I am." Natsu grinned, tilting the bottle that Zoro was drinking out of, causing it to trickle down onto his shirt.

"AGH! What the hell?!" Zoro screamed out.

"See?" The fire wizard shrugged at the straw hat.

"Wow…you're cool!" The three boys called out.

Blushing slightly, Natsu rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed grin. "Pshh…nah."

Luffy then pushed his hat back onto his head and slammed his hand onto the table. "Okay then! Enough of that! Since Usopp is making the rich girl laugh, we can go and ask her for a ship!"

"I thought you said you'd give up on that!" Nami yelled at him as she re-entered the room. This time though she refused to sit next to either of the pirates and stood with her arms crossed near the table.

Luffy merely shrugged. "Meh, I change my mind a lot!" He then moved his head towards the three kids. "Hey, can you take us to the big mansion where the girl lives?"

The three kids nodded and motioned them to follow.

* * *

As the group followed the three vegetable looking kids, they then were led to a large mansion which was blocked by a tall gate that surrounded the entire perimeter. "Hello! Can you please lend us a ship!" Luffy cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed out.

"I don't think they can hear you, Luffy." Zoro deadpanned.

The straw hat captain turned back to him. "You think I should yell louder then?"

"Luffy-"

"Ah forget it, let's just go in." Luffy shrugged as he began climbing up the gate.

Zoro just growled as he watched his captain ignore him and continue climbing the gate. He then felt a hand be placed on his shoulder and saw Natsu patting him with a sympathetic look. "Believe me…I know your pain."

Slapping her hand to her face, Nami just sighed. "We can't stop him, can we?"

Natsu just shook his head. "Nope. So, if we you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" The fire mage said, igniting his feet and shot himself over the gate.

"COOOOOOL!" The three boys shouted out together at seeing that awesome display.

Nami smiled at seeing the three boys outburst and almost lost herself to the gleefulness these people continued to drag her into. Shaking her head to dispel those happy thoughts, Nami forced herself to remember her true goal and jumped to grab ahold of the gate.

Unbeknownst to the others, Usopp was just finishing another of his glorious lies in order to cheer up the sick Kaya. Usopp leaned back further into the tree trunk as he continued, "-you shoulda seen the size of that goldfish! Just taking one gander of it woulda knocked your rich, little socks off!"

Kaya, a slim and pale-skinned girl with blonde hair and brown eyes, laughed as she asked, "Hahahaha…so what happened to the goldfish?"

Smiling to himself, Usopp replied, "Well then I sliced it up into little pieces and sent them to the country of the dwarves and up to this day they still haven't been able to finish eating it! Then, because of my amazing great powers, they all called me-"

"CAAAPTAIN!" A voice shouted out.

"They called you captain?" Kaya asked, scratching her head in confusion.

Usopp nodded before he realized he wasn't the one who said that. Recognizing that voice, Usopp turned to see his three partners with the new pirates he had encountered earlier. "HUH!? W-Why are you all here?!"

Tamanegi pointed to the straw hat pirate. "We brought this guy here."

Kaya tilted her head as she stared at all the strangers in her yard. "Hmm? Who are these people, Usopp?"

"Ohhh! So you're the rich lady!" Luffy shouted to the sickly girl.

Natsu just pinched the bridge of his nose. "Leave it to Luffy to be blunt as fuck." He whispered to himself.

Usopp began to sweat profusely as he looked to Kaya and the group. _'Oh no no no no no! Quick! I gotta come up with a lie! Come on…think think! …I GOT IT!'_ Snapping his fingers, he rushed over to Luffy and wrapped his arm around the straw hat kid. "Kaya, these guys are my admirers! They all heard of my reputation and travelled far and wide to see me here. They're the new members of the Usopp pirate group!"

Luffy nodded until his slow brain realized that that wasn't the case at all. "Wait, no, that's n-"

Usopp then closed his mouth before he could continue speaking. "Now, now, Vladmir, enough talk. You know that irritates your asthma!" The long-nosed teen then saw the straw hat kid stare angrily at him and gave him an apologetic smile. He then felt a slimy feeling on his fingers and tore his hand away from Luffy's mouth. "EWWW! Did you just lick my fingers!?"

Luffy simply grinned as he bonked Usopp on the head. "No, I punched you on the head! See?"

"AGH!" Usopp screamed, kneeling down as he held his head in his hands. _'Oh yeah…I feel that. I'm gonna be feeling that for days…'_

Natsu simply sighed as he saw this conversation was going nowhere and quickly sought to rectify that. "Listen umm…sorry we never got your name." _'Or if we did, I wasn't listening.'_

Kaya then turned to the salmon-haired man and smiled. "Oh, how rude of me! Please excuse me. My name is Kaya and this is me and my fa-…I mean, my estate. N-Nice to meet all of you." She lightly bowed.

Usopp caught that small slip of the tongue and frowned. _'Kaya…'_

Natsu, also noticing that slip of the tongue, quickly skirted away from that subject. "Nice to meetcha, Kaya. The name's Natsu. Gotta say, Usopp did say you were beautiful, b-"

"WAAAAAIT! I di-" Usopp screamed before Luffy closed his mouth and smiled.

"Shh, Vladmir…your…athma-thing is gonna act up." The straw hat teen grinned.

"Asthma, Luffy. It was asthma." Zoro said to him.

Luffy just stuck his tongue out at him while Zoro just rolled his eyes.

Kaya blushed at hearing her friend talk about her like that. She covered her cheeks before anyone saw the dark reddish hue that was forming. "U-Usopp said that?"

Natsu, smiling devilishly, continued, "Yup! He said your hair shined like the sun and that each strand of your hair was like little rays of sunshine that illuminated his eyes and brightened his soul. Your smile…oh your smile. He told us that that was the first image that he thought of every morning and last thought before he went to sleep. Your-UGH!" He grunted, feeling a hard elbow slam into his stomach.

Eye slightly twitching, Nami frowned as an odd feeling swirled in her stomach as she heard this buffoon's words towards the girl. Luckily, hitting the guy seemed to alleviate most of the feeling. Taking a deep breath, she stared up towards the blonde sickly girl. "Please excuse this idiot, he's…well an idiot."

"You're id-OOF!" He grunted as Nami elbowed him again. "…same place."

Kaya, still blushing vehemently at her friend's supposed words, looked to the orange-haired girl. "S-So…Usopp didn't really say any of that?"

Usopp began shaking his head as his mouth was still being held shut by the strong Luffy.

Breathing a sigh of…not relief, Kaya's blush began to slowly fade from her face. _'Hmm…strangely…I feel a sense of disappointment that Usopp didn't…oh what am I thinking?!'_ Shaking her head back and forth, the blonde girl quickly dispelled any of those weird thoughts that were beginning to crawl forth. "Y-You'll have to excuse my brashness, but…why exactly are you people here?"

"They wanna ask a favor of you!" Piiman yelled.

"A request? Of me?" Kaya asked, pointing to herself.

Luffy began nodding quickly. "Yeah! We need a reeeeeeaaaaally BIG ship! If y-"

Before Luffy could continue, a loud voice screamed out. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?!" The group turned to see a slim man with glasses and slicked black hair walk over to them. The man was wearing a black suit with two golden markings on it over a white shirt with a curious collar, with spiral-like protrusions on the edges, a standard black tie and sports striped shoes. "You can't just barge into the mansion like this!"

Usopp's eyes widened as he shouted out, "Thrm bfuler!" His eyes then turned downwards and remembered that his mouth was being covered up and sighed.

Luffy turned to the long-nosed liar and asked, "The who?"

"Thmr bfluer!"

"…what?"

"Bfler! The Bfler!"

"…I can't understand you! Speak clearly!"

"Luffy, for god's sakes, you're covering his mouth!" Zoro screamed at him.

Luffy's eyes wandered to see that his hands were indeed covering Usopp's mouth and chuckled embarrassedly. "Haha oh yeah! Whoops!" He then removed his hands from the wooly haired teen.

"…Jerk." Usopp mumbled before turned his attention towards the fuming butler, Klahador.

The butler returned Usopp's look with a piercing gaze. "Oh…it's you again. I hope that you weren't bothering our beloved lady, for your own sake." He said to the skinny liar, pushing his glasses with his right hand.

Trying to placate the tense atmosphere, Kaya raised her hands upwards into the air. "H-Hold on, Klahador. Usopp and his friends we-"

"-Just leaving? I hope so. Otherwise, drastic measures will have to be taken." The bespectacled butler told the lady of the house, while looking sharply towards the group of pirates.

Natsu just snorted at the weak threat coming from the servant. "Or what? You'll shoo us away with a handkerchief? Or perhaps you'll barrage us with distasteful words such as 'scoundrel' or 'ruffian.' Hell, maybe you'll be stupid enough to think you can pick a fight with us. Spoiler alert: You'll lose…painfully." He winked at the stoic butler.

Klahador remained calm and ignored the pink-haired boy's pathetic insults. Turning to the wooly-haired pirate, he cleared his throat. "You all have no idea who you're aligning yourselves with, do you?" He asked the group of people. Receiving no response, besides a silent gulp from Usopp, he continued, "No, I thought not. You know, I've heard rumors about you, Usopp. The villagers talk about you all the time."

Usopp's ears twitched at hearing that he was the talk of the village. Surely they said only positive things about him. Smiling to himself, he said, "Oh, why thank you! No need to fear though, I'm just like everyone else. Feel free to call me Captain Usopp though. It's one of my many, many titles I've acquired out on the high seas."

Klahador's mouth twitched at hearing that. "Ah…I see." His head lowered as he pushed his glasses up back to his face. "Hahaha…I can see you lie rather well. To think your pathetic mouth could spew such filthy lies that almost I believed it." Raising his head to stare at the long-nosed liar, he continued, "But, what can I expect from the son of a filthy pirate."

Usopp gritted his teeth at hearing his father's name be insulted. "…D-Did you say filthy?"

Ignorant to the tense atmosphere, Luffy tilted his head and asked, "Eh? His dad was a pirate?"

The bespectacled butler nodded his head at the air-headed boy's question. "Yes. This filth and the lovely Kaya belong to totally different worlds. Listen, if it's money you're looking for? Name your price. Surely a…captain such as yourself needs money to travel across the high seas." He snickered to himself.

Before he could continue however, Kaya slammed her hands onto her windowsill. "That's enough, Klahador! Apologize to Usopp at once!"

Klahador's hand twitched at the angry tone from the frail teen's voice. To think…she still thought she had any power. _'Patience…you'll have to play this stupid part for just a little longer. Afterwards, these two can rot together underneath the high seas. Still though…'_ Pushing his glasses upwards again, the butler continued his barrage of insults. "I feel sorry for you. You hate your father, don't you? You must. After all, he's nothing but a 'dumb treasure hunter' who deserted his family and village!"

"KLAHADOR!" Kaya shouted at him.

"Say something about my father again…and you'll regret it!" Usopp growled angrily at Klahador, his eyes full of fury and anger as his teeth clenched tighter together.

Smirking to himself, the butler said, "Why so serious? You know, if you were really smart, you'd told another one of your stupid lies. Perhaps, that your father is merely a travelling merchant, or that you and him aren't blood-related, or-" Before the grinning Klahador could continue, Usopp finally snapped and cried out with a roar of passion as he slammed his fist straight into his face. From the force of the blow, Klahador flew back onto the ground. Spitting out a speck of blood, he growled out, "Look how violent you are! Just like your father!"

"SHUT UP!" Usopp yelled out. "I'm proud that my dad is a pirate! I'm proud that he is a brave warrior of the sea! You're right that I like to lie, but I'm proud of having a pirate's blood in me! I don't have to pretend I'm not! I AM THE SON OF A PIRATE!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, causing it to echo throughout the area.

Having had time to digest the long-nosed boy's features finally, something inside of Luffy's mind sparked a memory. "Oh yeah…that guy! Now I remember!"

Klahador merely chuckled as Usopp screamed and glared vehemently towards him. "Heh. You say Pirates are 'Brave Warriors of the Sea?' Don't make me laugh. They're nothing but a bunch of savages and bloodthirsty scoundrels just like your deadbeat of a father, which gives me plenty of reason to kick you out of here!"

Before the butler could continue, Usopp lunged at him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "I dare you to say that again!" _'Just one more punch…that's all I need! To make him pay…for insulting my father!'_

As Usopp raised his fist to give Klahador another smackdown, Kaya screamed out to him, "Usopp, please stop! Please don't use violence!" The long-nosed teen's fist stopped dead in its tracks. His gaze moved towards the blonde girl's teary-eyed face and felt his fist tremble. "Please…K-Klahador isn't a b-bad person. He's concerned about me." She stuttered out, all eyes seeming to be on her, causing the majority of them to miss the slight twitching of the butler's lips as he heard Kaya's words. All except for a certain dragon slayers…

After hearing Kaya, Klahador smacked Usopp's hand away from him and gave him a cold stare. "Get the hell out of here! Savages like you are not welcome here! I'll let you off this time, but I warn you…don't come here again!" He screamed towards the trembling liar.

Usopp took a slow step backwards, feeling an intense aura emanating from the butler suddenly. Holding back a few tears, he looked towards Kaya in the hopes that she would say something on his behalf. That he wasn't a savage…that the butler was wrong about him and his father…that…that they were friends.

But she said nothing…

The wooly-haired teen lowered his head in shame as he gripped his fists to the point of almost cutting them with his fingernails. Breathing out a heavy sigh, Usopp gave the butler, as well as Kaya, an intense stare. "Fine, I understand. I'll never come back again!" He yelled out, as he stomped away towards the gate.

"Usopp…" Kaya whispered out as she watched the boy who had brought her immense feelings of pleasure and contentment leave her house.

"You bastard! Our captain is not that kind of person!" Tamanegi screamed towards the butler on behalf of his friend.

"Yeah! Stupid!" Piiman followed up afterwards.

"Idiot!" Niinjin shouted with them.

"Yeah, you stupid idiot bastard!" Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs, until Zoro whacked him on the head.

"Idiot, why are you screaming along with them?" The moss-haired swordsman asked.

Twitch marks began to form on Klahador's forehead as he yelled to the remaining people, "All of you, get the hell out of here now!"

"Grr…why you!" The straw hat kid growled as he began to lunge at the butler before Zoro began dragging him out of there kicking and screaming. Before the three kids could follow suit, Nami grabbed ahold of them and also began dragging them out of there. As the rest began to leave, Kaya merely closed her window and bundled up in her bed with her pillow to her chest. Klahador merely stood there as he watched the remaining trespassers leave until he saw that the pink-haired pirate was still lounging about. "Hey, you deaf? I said that all everyone, including pirates and trespassers, need to leave now!" He shouted at the staring pirate.

Still staring, Natsu merely tilted his head in thought as he looked intently at the butler. Finally, he gave him a cocky smirk and began to turn around before he gave the Klahador one last look. "Doesn't that include ex-pirates too?" The dragon slayer winked.

The bespectacled man's eyes shot out in disbelief as he heard the man's question. "W-What did you just say?"

Natsu just kept smiling. "I said, doesn't that include pieces of shit like you? C'mon, pal, you gotta learn to listen, Kurodor…or is it, Klahador? Sorry, I'm no good with names…but faces to me are the ones that usually stick with me. Faces kinda like yours…hmm…ah well." He gave the fuming butler one last wink before walking off in a casual pace.

' _No…he couldn't. That…that was impossible! No one knew he was…no. Pull yourself together! There is no way some pink-haired pirate simpleton could possibly know who I am. I'm just being paranoid. After all, it's been a while since I've pulled off a plan as grand as this. Still though…it wouldn't hurt to be a bit precautious. Hopefully, that idiot Jango can walk into town without causing a scene.'_ Klahador thought to himself, as he pushed his glasses onto his face and wiped his face clean with his handkerchief, and walked back into the mansion to console the rich crying blonde twit.

* * *

As the rest of the group walked back to the town, they saw that Usopp was nowhere to be found until Piiman deduced that their captain was perhaps by the shore to be alone with his thoughts. So, Luffy, being the social idiot that he was, took it on himself to bring back the lying captain back here and began dragging along the ambivalent dragon slayer to track him down with his hypersensitive nose. Using Natsu's nose, they finally found Usopp sitting alone on a hilltop beside a tree. Seeing him, Luffy quickly ran up the tree and scared him by shouting at him as he hung upside down by a hanging branch. "There you are!" Luffy shouted, causing Usopp to jump up in fright at being surprised.

"Ahhhhh! Don't do that! I hate surprises! Why can't you be more normal and just say hello!" The wooly-haired liar screamed angrily towards the smiling straw hat pirate.

Hearing the insane prospect at Luffy being normal, Natsu merely scoffed as he took a seat next to the enraged liar. "Pshh, Luffy? Normal? That's a riot. The day that Luffy becomes normal is the day your nose stops growing." He chuckled, causing Usopp to blush embarrassingly and rub his nose.

"Hey, my nose is the perfect size and it has nothing to do with my lies either! It just…is…" Usopp retorted, until he began to rub his head to come up with a snappy comeback.

"Is really big?" Luffy said with the tilt of his head.

"SHUT UP!" Usopp screamed angrily at the straw hat boy.

Luffy merely chuckled as he stared at Usopp's face. "Your dad…is Yasopp, right?"

All the anger suddenly dropped from the long-nosed boy's face as he heard the name of his father. "Y-Yeah! How did you know that?"

"Shishishi I've known him since I was a kid!" The straw hat pirate smiled.

Usopp's heart began to beat faster at finally meeting someone who knew his dad personally besides his mother. "Y-You knew my dad?"

"Yup! I thought you looked kinda familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. But seeing you up close, you look just like him!" Luffy told him.

"Where is he now? Do you know?" Usopp suddenly asked him point blank in the hopes that this boy knew where his father was.

"I dunno." He replied, causing Usopp to droop his shoulders slightly. "But, I'm pretty sure he is on Shanks the Red-haired's ship! Haha Yasopp was always one of my favorite pirates on that crew!"

As the straw hat pirate began recanting his experiences with the self-proclaimed sharpshooter, Usopp could feel his heart swelling with pride for his father. All the nasty things that that damn butler said about him was wrong! His father truly was a brave warrior of the sea! Just like he always knew he was! _'Father…'_

Natsu smiled as he saw the two bonding over a shared passion for piracy and took a large breath of fresh air. He always loved that smell…the sea breeze. While it always was mixed with that horrific experience of riding on a ship, the dragon slayer couldn't deny that riding with close friends was something he treasured above all else. The fire mage sighed as he wondered what his current friends were doing know…he hadn't been in this land long, but thanks to the actions of certain individuals, he was able to find himself in the company of friendly and exceptional individuals. Granted, most were bit…on the weird side, but hey, it's not like he was some run of the mill guy either. Still, he wondered if…wait, wasn't that the- "Hey, isn't that shithole of a butler?" He asked the two beside him. _'Oh sorry, wait…"butler"'_

Getting the attention of Usopp and Luffy, they both looked down and also confirmed that it was indeed that shithead, Klahador. "Hey it is! But what the heck is he doing here…and with that weird looking dude?" The long-nosed teen asked, pointing at the odd man with a blue trench coat, and a big hat of matching color. He wore a white shirt under his coat, and green-brown gloves. He also had light brown pants with a black belt and black shoes with big white socks. However, perhaps the oddest thing about him was that weird trunk-like object sticking out of his chin. Looking at each other, they nodded and leaned in slowly to hear just what exactly was going on.

"Jango, you idiot, I told you not to draw the attention of the villagers. Why did you sleep in the middle of the street?" Klahador asked with a growl. _'Should've known I couldn't trust this fool to not be conspicuous. I have half a mind to kill this fool right here. Still…with the prospect of that pink-haired idiot possibly knowing who I am, it wouldn't hurt to have an extra body in case things go south.'_

The odd man just blew him off with a hand. "How can I attract any attention? It's not like I look weird or something!"

The three up top sweatdropped at the guy's comment.

Shaking his head at the man's idiocy, Klahador pushed the rims of his glasses back onto his face and gave the man a hard look. "So…are you all prepared for it?"

"Of course!" Jango nodded to his boss. "We can start operation 'Assassinate The Lady of The House' anytime!"

Hearing that, the three widened their eyes at what those two were planning. _'What!? Assassinate?!'_ Both Luffy and Usopp screamed internally.

Natsu on the other hand just blew a heavy sigh. _'Ugh…so I was right, after all. Mmmm…guess I owe_ _ **her**_ _a couple of beli for making me study all those pirates in the East Blue. I just hope she doesn't hold me to the rest of the deal too…'_

Klahador, in the meantime, was merely shaking his head side to side in disgust. "Assassinate is such an ugly word. I prefer to label it as…an accident." The butler chuckled with a sardonic smile stretched across his face.

Nodding at his boss' choice of words, Jango said, "Ah! Yeah! Accident! We'll call it an accident! Excellent choice, Captain Kuro!"

' _Kuro…called it! Yes! …Then again, it doesn't bode well for that rich girl seeing as how I'm right…'_ Natsu said to himself in his head.

Klahador's eye twitched at hearing his past alias. "Jango, I gave up that name three years ago, don't call me that name again! You are the captain now." _'You simpleton…hmph. I wonder who'd make a better captain, this buffoon or that lying coward? Heh, either way, they'll be dead soon enough.'_

Hearing all this talking, Luffy scratched his head. "Mmmmm, do any of you two really get what's going on. I mean, I get that they're planning on hurting Usopp's rich girlfriend, which is not okay, but…I'm lost after all that."

"Okay, first of all, she's not my girlfriend! Second, Kuro…Kuro…I think I've heard that name before." Usopp said to himself as he scratched the lower side of his chin.

Seeing the two were confused, Natsu decided to step in to alleviate the confusion. "Captain Kuro, the leader of the…Black Cat pirates or some other stupid name like that. Supposedly, he was this expert planner that helped him rob and plunder. Then, the Marines finally got him and had him executed…or so the rumor went. And now, here he is…the same shitface he was three years ago." He growled out, shaking his head at remembering some of the things he had read up on this East Blue pirate.

"Mmmmmm…I don't like him." The straw hat captain muttered.

"Same here. I mean, I never really liked him, but it was only because he would keep me away from Kaya. But now…now that I know what kind of person he truly is, it puts my anger of him on a whole new level!" The long-nosed teen whispered vehemently. Back down the hill, the two conspirators were reveling in their remembrance of their own pasts with one another. The three listened intently as they learned that instead of Kuro being executed by the Marines, he was actually alive and well hiding out for three years in Syrup village as nothing but a humble butler. Usopp gritted his teeth as he pieced together that all the time the butler spent together with Kaya was nothing but his fabricated plan in deceiving Kaya and her parents that he was an ally, while truly he was nothing but a snake waiting for his moment to strike.

Suddenly, Jango shot up off of his seat and gave Kuro a thumbs up. "Don't worry, boss! You can leave the girl to me."

Hearing Jango's boastful tone, Kuro shook his head and turned to him, while simultaneously pushing his glasses back onto his face. "No, killing her is not enough. You have to make sure it looks like an accident! It looks like you're not ready yet!"

"Shut up! I'm completely ready!" Jango retorted. "When you give the signal, we'll charge into the village…and we'll kill the lady. Then you can openly claim her inheritance."

Gritting his teeth, Kuro pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "You know, I wonder if your mom actually gave your brain! I have absolutely no relation to her family. Therefore, I cannot OPENLY gain her inheritance!" He growled at him.

Jango merely gave a light shrug. "We'll work on it! All w-"

"All YOU need to do is follow MY orders. There is no WE! So, listen well because if I have to repeat myself, then I swear you'll be next on my list, ok?" Kuro pointed to his conspirator who gave him a nervous nod in return. "Good. Before you kill her you have to hypnotize her and make sure she writes my name into her will! I repeat, she needs to write, and I quote, 'I will leave all my wealth to my butler, Klahador.' That way, I can openly claim her wealth for myself. I've spent three damn years on this pathetic little village getting these simpletons to trust me, and as soon as she writes the will, no one will suspect me." He placed an open palm on his suit with a smug smile.

"True…nobody ever suspects the butler…for some reason." Natsu muttered to himself.

"Hahaha! That's our Kuro! Well, the men aren't too far from here! Our ship has been anchored close by for almost a week. Hehe…they can't hold back any longer." Jango said to his boss forebodingly, causing Usopp to gulp silently.

"H-Horrible…I've heard a horrible plan." Usopp whispered to himself. _'I have t-to…I-'_

"Hey! What's going on? This doesn't look good!" Luffy said, pushing his chin onto his folded arms with a confused stare, causing Usopp's jaw to drop and Natsu to facepalm.

Shaking his head back and forth, the wooly-haired teen swallowed heavily. _'For three years they've been lusting after Kaya's wealth. And that butler…no! Captain Kuro is still alive…and I punched him. H-He's going to kill me for sure! And K-'_ "Kaya will be killed too! The village will be under attack! No…this isn't good. Not good at all!" Usopp whispered, sweating profusely. Seeing movement in the corner of his eyes, he turned to see Luffy suddenly stand up. "Don't stand up! They'll see you!" He whispered to the straw hat boy.

Ignoring him entirely, Luffy took in a deep breath and shouted, "Hey! You two! Don't you dare touch the nice rich lady!" Because of Luffy's screams, it caused both Kuro and Jango to stare upwards.

"Oh…it's Usopp…" Kuro muttered, moving his eyes to see the straw hat kid along with… _'That pink-haired punk.'_ "Did any of you…hear anything?" He asked the three with a severe glare.

Usopp began shaking his head back and forth. "N-No! We didn't we swear. We heard nothing!"

Luffy turned to Usopp with a confused stare. "What are you talking about? We heard everything about his bad plan. Oi, are you deaf or something?" He asked, causing Usopp to give him an angry glare.

Jango put a hand on his fedora as he nodded. "Heard everything, huh? Oh well, you guys, take a look at this pendulum." He said as he began swinging a pendulum that he had taken out of his pocket.

"Look at what?" Luffy said, moving his head to stare at the pendulum.

"Ahh! He's going to use that to kill us!" Usopp screamed out, quickly pushing himself to the ground to avoid being seen.

"When I say one, two, Jango, you will fall asleep. One…two…Ja-AGH!" Jango screamed as he felt a flame burn his hand, forcing him to drop his pendulum on the floor.

Kuro's eyes widened as he saw the flame come from upwards. His head then turned up to see the pink-haired pirate with his hand in the shape of a gun and smoke emanating from his fingertips. Natsu merely smiled and blew the smoke from his fingers. "Luffy, feeling sleepy?" The fire mage asked.

Luffy shook his head with a disappointed look. "Nope. Man, that was lame!"

Kuro gritted his teeth in anger at seeing his plan fall to cinders in front of his eyes, but quickly recomposed himself before he could left his temper overtake him. "Ahem, I suppose you'll be running back to that little village of yours now, huh Usopp? But do you really think they'll believe you over the kindly butler? After all, your reputation is in shatters and everyone, even the lovely Kaya, sees you as nothing but a liar and a nuisance. Whatever you do, you and your compatriots, I have a large army ready to take what is rightfully mine. So, if you have any working brain cells left, you'll take the cowards way out and steal a boat and leave this village." He smiled, pushing the rims of his glasses back onto his face.

Usopp felt his stomach drop as he listened to the evil Kuro's words. "He's right…in their eyes, I'm nothing but a liar. A boy who cries pirates…and now that there really are pirates…who'll believe me." He whispered to himself. _'N-No! I…I still have to try! Kaya and the villagers need to know!'_ Quickly steeling himself, Usopp shot out towards the village before Kuro or his lackey could stop him.

Luffy turned to see the long-nosed boy run off back towards the village in a hurry. "Oi, Luffy." Natsu whispered to him, getting the boy's attention. "Follow him. Warn Zoro and Nami. Formulate a plan or whatever you can before this shitstain of a pirate can rally his men."

"Aww but I really want-"

"NOW!" Natsu growled at him, giving the boy a fierce glare that told the straw hat captain that he meant business.

Luffy merely pouted as he nodded in affirmation and ran off towards the village. "Don't think you can make this a habit!" He shouted as he sped away.

Kuro glared upwards at the dragon slayer as he whispered to Jango, "How long till you can rally the men?"

"As soon as-"

"Then go, NOW!" Kuro growled, fury emanating from the butler. Jango nodded quickly before running off towards the anchored ship.

Both the dragon and the pirate stared each other down…neither backing down from their glares. The two of them knew that they would soon battle it out…but not now.

"You're weak. You won't win." Natsu told the bespectacled pirate.

Kuro chuckled. "Haha oh boy, I've faced pirates far, far stronger and more experienced than you and your friends. What makes you think that you can possibly triumph over my three year plan?"

"Simple. I'm stronger than you. Hell, Luffy and Zoro could take you with their eyes blinded and their arms lobbed off. You're weak…leave now. And maybe…I won't burn you to a crisp." The dragon slayer growled out.

"Why, how noble of you. To think pirates in this day and age still know the concept of chivalry. I'm surprised." Kuro smirked.

"You're surprised? I'm shocked that a piece of shit like you knows what chivalry is. I mean, murdering an innocent girl who trusts you with her life…to stab her in the back? Wow…you're lucky I'm in a good mood today. Know this, the only reason I'm letting you go is because I'd crush you easily. If you're still the man the people in the East Blue used to fear, than ready yourself and meet me near that mansion where we can settle this." Natsu told the pirate with a sneer.

"And my army? Aren't you afraid my men will slaughter your friends? The masses? Oh wait…I forgot, savages don't have loved ones." Kuro laughed out loud.

Natsu chuckled. "Hell, say what you want about us savages…at least we don't dress ourselves with pieces of shit on our clothes, shitface." Natsu winked.

Gripping his fist, Kuro looked down to stare at the two yellow objects on his suit. _'What is he talking about? These look nothing-…well, I'll be damned. Note to self, personally kill the tailor that made this.'_ Looking back upwards, the bespectacled pirate saw that the pink-haired boy had vanished. Smiling to himself, he walked back towards the mansion to ready himself for the coming battle.

* * *

Walking back to the village, Natsu found his friends with one another with serious looks. Looking down, he could see Usopp in a state of depression and deduced that Kuro was indeed right and no one believed that pirates were planning to invade their little village. "Let me guess…no evacuation?" Natsu asked the depressed liar.

Usopp nodded somberly. "Because I used to lie all the time, no one believes a word I say now! Even so…the fact that those pirates are going to attack is the truth, right? They're definitely going to attack. Tomorrow morning at the latest. But no one believes me! They all think tomorrow will be another peaceful day." He nodded to himself, as he stood up. "Since everyone thinks I'm a liar, I'll protect this village myself and prevent the pirates from attacking! In order to protect the village, then this will become one of my lies!" The long-nosed liar shouted out. "Hehe…even though they shot at me…and threw stones at me…and called me a liar…I love this village! I want to protect everyone! I…I want to be a brave warrior of the sea…like I promised my mom! I want my father to be proud to have a coward like me as a son!" He said, his lips trembling and covered his eyes with his hands. "How can I…how can I just watch…as everyone I love gets killed."

The four continued to stare with poker faces at the trembling teen. Finally, Zoro was the first to break and sighed. "You are a pretty good guy, you lied to your crew so that you could do this alone…"

Luffy nodded. "Okay! I'm definitely going to butt-in this one!"

"Something tells me you would have even if they didn't want you too…" Natsu muttered.

"But first things first, all their treasure is mine!" Nami said with an okay sign.

"W-What?" Usopp asked, rubbing the tears out of his eyes. "You guys…are willing to fight with me? W-Why?"

"Because the enemies outnumber you! That's not a fair fight!" The straw hat captain replied.

"Besides, you have the words 'I'm scared' written all over your face." The green-haired swordsman told the trembling liar.

Usopp took offense to that remark and shouted back at the four, while jabbing a thumb in his own direction. "Idiots! Me scared? So what if they outnumber me?! They can't compete on my level! I'm Captain Usopp and in my veins flows the blood of a courageous warrior!" He screamed at the four pirates…with his legs trembling like leaves.

The four just stared with deadpan looks…

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT!? FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD, IT'S CAPTAIN KURO'S FLEET! OF COURSE I'M SCARED OUT OF MY MIND! GO AWAY! I DON'T NEED YOUR SYMPATHY!" The trembling liar yelled.

Zoro began to shake his head at the nervous teen's shouts. "We're not sympathizing for you! But rather, we're commending you for having courage."

Natsu nodded. "You've got some pretty big brass ones if you plan on protectin' a village from a bunch of pirates. Be a shame if we left you to have all the fun! Besides, this little village ain't half bad."

"Why else would we risk our own lives?!" Luffy said, giving Usopp a determined stare.

Hearing all that, tears began to slowly cascade down Usopp's cheeks. "Y-You…you guys…I'm so touched!"

"Please stop crying…it's really ruining the cool image of you we just saw of you…" The dragon slayer muttered.

After the crying Usopp's tears began to stop, he told the group of a single way into the village that the pirates must have planned on entering from. So, they departed from the village and the long-nosed teen then showed them where the pirate's must have been planning from entering from. "They're going to attack from this shore." Usopp said, pointing to the sloping hill that led to the shore. He then began walking down with the four pirates accompanying him. As they reached the bottom, the wooly-haired teen turned around and pointed to the top of the hill. "This is the only way into the village. There's only one slope and the rest is just cliffs. This means, as long as we guard this slope with our lives, the village won't be harmed!"

Luffy poked his fingers from underneath his hat and began scratching his head with a grin. "Sounds easy enough."

"Easier said than done, Luffy. Remember, they've got an army…then again, we have a kid that can stretched his limbs and blow them up into extreme proportions, while simultaneously having an incredibly awesome guy who can shoot fire from his fingertips. Hmm…maybe it is easy." The fire mage said, looking into the sky.

Usopp nodded. "I see…well what can the rest of you do?"

"Cutting!" Zoro replied.

"Stealing!" Nami winked.

"Hiding!" Usopp said…to his own question.

"YOU HAVE TO FIGHT TOO!" The four screamed at him.

After screaming at the poor liar, the five of them began working tirelessly to defend the little village. Studying the slope, Usopp rolled out a couple barrels of oil and splashed it onto the hill. The plan was obvious enough: pirates go up…then they come down. Pretty simple physics. Perfectly smearing the oil onto the hill took a while, but was finished none the less. Breathing a sigh of relief, Usopp said, "Okay! We're done! Now those bastards won't be able to get up this slope. Surely this is the most effective way to battle them!"

"Umm…except punching them." Luffy muttered, kicking the dirt next to them.

"Forget it, Luffy. We put it to a vote. You lost!" Natsu replied with a smirk.

"Boooo! I wanna fight them!" The straw hat teen pouted.

Zoro shrugged. "You know you can just punch them while their slipping."

"…Oh yeah! Thanks, Zoro!" Luffy beamed, causing the swordsman to roll his eyes.

"Just don't fall down there yourself or else you're screwed!" Nami retorted with a smile.

"True!" The dragon slayer chuckled, lightly pushing the orange-haired teen forward.

"H-HEY!" She yelled, jumping aback before she slipped downwards. Nami then turned around to glare intently and fumed at the smiling dragon slayer. "Jerk!" The irritated girl growled, kicking the boy in the shin, which only hurt her. "OUCH! …My beautiful foot. What the heck are you made of!"

"You really wanna find out?" Natsu asked with a wink, causing Nami to blush and turn away from the winking fire mage.

Zoro rolled his eyes as he watched the two once again commence their odd flirtations with one another. "Idiots…" He muttered, turning his head to see that the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. "Looks like the sun is up."

"The pirates are going to come soon…" Nami gulped to herself. Time began to slowly tick by, but the pirates still hadn't shown themselves. "Where are they? It's already morning."

"Who knows. Maybe they slept in. Gotta keep your strength up before invading a village after all." Natsu snarked, shrugging his shoulders. Suddenly, his head twitched to the side as he heard a loud shout come from another part of the island.

"Umm…am I just overly sensitive, or did I just hear 'Go!' from the north direction?" The orange-haired teen asked aloud, holding her hand to her ear to get a better grasp at what she was hearing.

"You heard that too?" The dragon slayer asked the girl, getting a nod back.

"I'm positive!" She said, moving her head around to try to get a better read on where exactly the voices were coming from.

Sweat began to pour down Usopp's face tremendously as he slowly began to piece together what must have happened. "Oh no! No no no no no NO!" He yelled, grasping his head harshly as he shook it side to side.

"What's going on?!" The swordsman growled at the sweating teen.

"T-There's another entrance into the village in the north…" Usopp whispered, his hope draining from his body as he realized that his entire plan was falling right in front of his eyes.

"Don't tell me you got it wrong!" Luffy screamed at him in shock.

"They talked about the plan here so I thought that they'd attack from this side!" The long-nosed teen shouted back at him.

Before this could get out of hand, Natsu pried the two apart. "Shut up, the both of you! We can kick each other asses later, but right now we need to know exactly where they are going to attack from! Usopp?"

Usopp gritted his teeth as he began thinking. "Going in the north direction will only take three minutes. The landscape on that side is basically the same as this one! All we have to do is prevent them from coming on top of the slope!"

Quickly, Luffy shot forward as he ran in what he thought was the correct direction of where north was before anyone could stop him. Usopp quickly ran in the other direction, his mind far too preoccupied with protecting his village than chasing after Luffy.

"OH NO!" Nami screamed, slapping her hands to the sides of her face. "That's where we docked our ships! My treasure is going to be robbed!" She then began to shoot off too, but her feet slipped from the greasiness of the oil trap. "Damn it!"

"Nami, what are you doing!?" Zoro exclaimed, looking back at the thief.

"Help! I'm slipping!" She shouted, grabbing whatever was nearby, which so happened to be the moss-haired swordsman.

"WAAH! Let go, idiot! You're going to bring us both down!" He growled at her, his face slamming onto the ground as they both began to slip downwards.

"Oops! Sorry!" Nami replied, trying to use his body as a means to get up before she also slipped downwards. _'Sorry, Zoro! But my treasure is my top priority right now!'_ Luckily however, before she could pull down poor Zoro, two hands grabbed the two and chucked them forward onto the ground. They both grunted as they hit the ground and slowly started to get up, seeing an irritated Natsu stare back at them.

"Right there…that was utterly pathetic." He muttered angrily, staring at the two harshly. "If you two have any means of winning today, you better try a lot harder at protecting one another. Otherwise, you both are gonna soon perish. The high seas hold terrors that would make you piss your pants just from thinkin' about them." Natsu growled, slamming his foot down. "SO YOU BETTER WORK TOGETHER, ALRIGHT! I don't want to bury either of you today or any other day, undertstand?!"

Both Zoro and Nami moved their eyes from the glaring salmon-haired teen to the other person's faces. The beli-loving thief could feel the heat rush to her face at the utter dreadful shame that was permeating through her body. Honestly, if Natsu hadn't of been here…she would have left the swordsman to fend for himself. But she had a good reason! She had to…no, what she was about to do was despicable. There was no doubt about that. But she had resigned herself to doing this things long ago…when _he_ killed her mother. Still, now wasn't the time to worry about her treasure. Right now, there were murderous pirates about to ransack a village, murder an innocent girl, and if her and her partners didn't play their cards right, then they too would die. So, swallowing her pride, Nami picked herself up and put out a hand for the greasy swordsman in the hopes of apologizing for her actions. Zoro gave her one hell of a glare, one that would give any child, and perhaps even grown adults, nightmares, but still accepted her hand. As soon as he was up, he threw her hand back to her and ran off towards where he too believed the right direction was…

It was the wrong one of course…

Nami sighted to herself seeing as how Zoro was obviously furious with her. Turning her head, she could tell that the salmon-haired boy was quite irritated with her too. "Don't do that again. You wanna live, right?" The fire mage asked her.

' _Yes…God, yes. I owe it to her to live.'_ The orange-haired teen nodded.

"Then protect the people who wanna protect you. And to do that…" Natsu walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder. "…Then you need to trust them." He said, giving the girl a serious look. Nami gulped as she could see the fire underneath the boy's stare. Somehow, she could see a sense of profound knowledge behind his eyes…a sort of pain as well. One that perhaps contributed to his anger at seeing two people who he cared for act so selfishly…well herself more so than Zoro.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, looking away from the boy's eyes.

"Don't be…" He whispered back. _'I can see your pain too…'_ Taking a step back from her, Natsu began walking back towards the village.

"W-Wait! Where are you going?!" Nami shouted to him.

"Sorry, but I've got my own ways of dealing with battles. Just follow Usopp. Luffy and Zoro will find their ways to you!" He replied back. _'I've got an appointment I really need to keep…'_

Looking utterly shell-shocked, Nami shook herself to regain her senses and ran after where she saw the wooly-haired teen was headed. _'Gotta focus! Need to protect…well…hrgh! Damn that guy! He's confusing me! I need to protect my treasure, but…now I need to protect these guys too! Ugh, I'll sort out these feelings la-…wait a minute, DID LUFFY AND ZORO GO THE WRONG WAY!?'_

* * *

Tick tock…

Tick tock…

Tick tock…

A loud sound was emanating throughout Kaya's mansion, flowing through the open front door. Sitting atop several steps, was an infuriated Kuro. "Why are they so late…those idiots should know what it means to ruin my plans." He growled, smacking the stained blood off of his suit. _'Ugh…this is one of the things I hated about killing people, blood always stains. Still, it's not like I didn't enjoy killing that halfwit of a coworker.'_ Gripping his fists tightly, Kuro began stepping down the steps and out towards where he his imbecilic henchmen planned on storming the village, a vast amount of killing aura emanating from his body. "If they dare forget about my plans…I will kill them a-" He suddenly stopped upon exiting the gate that barred outsiders from entering the mansion. Just across from him…was that damn smiling pink-haired boy that dared to threaten him.

"Heya. Boy, you seem awfully frustrated about something…guess I'm doing a pretty good job of pissing you off, huh?" Natsu growled with a smile on his face, his eyes entirely black and devoid of any cheerfulness.

 **AAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNDDDDD THAT'S A WRAP! Finally…FINALLY! Fuck, I can't believe I am finally done with writing this chapter. Woof…this took a while, didn't it? Haha…sorry about that. Been dealing with some health problems as of late so that took top priority. But I'm done now! Also, I know I stopped before the fighting began, but that will be next chapter. It'll be probably a much shorter one than this one because I'll mainly be using it to wrap up the loose ends of this arc (i.e. the battles, getting a ship, saving Kaya, etc.) So, I'll try to get that one out as soon as possible. After that, I'll probably write either a new chapter of The Dragon and the Fairies or Carpe Diem. Then, I'll go back to Remnants of a Demon. And then, END of Justice…oh boy. That's gonna be a lot of writing for me, but I'll do my best!**

 **Also, if you enjoyed this chapter, then please leave a review along with a favorite and a follow because that will mean the absolute world to me!**

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